The Simplest of Emotions
by LanceWalker
Summary: It is three years after the graduation of Ron's class from Hogwarts. More importantly, however, it is the third year after the end of the Second Voldemort War, and the start of the Dumbledorian Concord. The war is over, and the world is rebuilding, but
1. In Needs of Introduction

The Simplest of Emotions  
  
By: Lance Walker  
  
Rating: PG-13-for language, sexual innuendo, possible sexual situations (we'll see where it takes me)  
  
Spoilers: All Books  
  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
  
Story Note: It is three years after the graduation of Ron's class from Hogwarts. More importantly, however, it is the third year after the end of the Second Voldemort War, and the start of the Dumbledorian Concord. The war is over, and the world is rebuilding, but Ron is not. Since his graduation he has locked himself away in his room in the burrow and lived the life of a hermit. Now, after these three years, he has decided to enter into the world again. On his first day into the world, his twenty- second birthday, however, he learns something that shocks all the foundations of his life, and threatens his return to hermitage.but this time, Ron will confront the mystery, and in so doing, confront the past he so wants to forget. Ron's problems, however, seem to be nothing compared to what the wizarding world is facing. Will he be able to handle it all? Or will he go back to where he is safe.possible still safe. His resilience, as well as the resilience of the whole wizarding world will be tested as things unravel, new and old horrors are released, and people long dead, find a way back into the light.  
  
Author's Note: Any and all questions, comments, or suggestions can be sent to me at any time, and I will appreciate them immensely! This process is extremely hard and time consuming, but I have finally found another passion.might as well hold on to it ;)  
Chapter 1  
  
In Needs of Introduction  
  
As I look back on the five years since the hell started and ended, I can honestly say that I would give anything if I could go back and erase it all from history. Since those dark days I've had to say good-bye to far too many people, and some of them I'll never get to say good-bye to-I never got the chance.  
  
As I write this, the faces of friends flash through my head. I don't remember the exact numbers, but I know that after the final battle, Gryffindor's common room was far from full. Going to classes the following year, my sixth, led me to meet hundreds of new faces, from teachers to first years.  
  
I remember meeting those first years as Gryffindor's prefect, just as my brother Percy was before me, and thinking just how lucky they were. None of them would see the horrors of all the carnage. They were, every one of them, wet behind the ears, and I was glad. They wouldn't have to feel the immense loss that had so enshrouded the school for the last month after the war. The lived in a post-Voldemort world, where dreams could become reality without the threatening cloud of His possible return. That was the only good outcome from the war. None other than Harry Potter defeated Voldemort, once and for all. He told me once, after the battle, that when the final spell was cast, Voldemort just seemed to disintegrate, and blow away on a wind like dust. For every ash his body became, however, the world lost one wizard or witch.  
  
I think the greatest loss out of all the carnage, for me at least, was Hermione. It's hard to believe that she isn't here with me any longer.and our love was only just beginning to blossom when it was all ended. Her radiant features will never grace me with a beaming smile. Her beautiful eyes will never captivate me. I'll never see her beautiful hair after she's worked for five hours on it just to make it straight. I'll never kiss her lips again.  
  
But I am getting ahead of myself.  
  
I shudder every time I picture those horrific scenes; an army of Death Eaters and Dementors marching on Hogwarts and those wizards who would stand against Voldemort's tyranny, the rivers of blood that turned the lake red, the horrible, corrosive smell of evil curses and of death.  
  
The nightmares still flood my dreams from that day. The dark figure of the reborn Voldemort walking onto the erupting battlefield with such confidence was petrifying. I remember Dumbledore fighting Voldemort. It was an evenly matched, amazing duel. Dumbledore, the purest, strongest wizard ever to walk the earth, would have won, had the king of evil not used the Cruciatus Curse on McGonagall. Dumbledore stopped fighting for a moment to release her, and in that second, Voldemort was able to use Avada Kedavra. That green light haunted my vision for months, and still sometimes does. When I'm not thinking, I sometimes hear the rushing sound, as if some invisible phantom were gliding through the air. I've always hypothesized that the curse somehow called the angel of death, and it was its foreboding wing beats that was the rushing sound that was heard. Whatever it is, however, I saw far too many of my friends fall to its destruction. I saw Hermione-and I could have saved her.  
  
I know everyone believes me to be an outcast. I was only a fifth year when the whole war began and ended. Voldemort was defeated, possibly once and for all, but so much had been destroyed in the wake of his second darkness, that parts of the wizarding and Muggle world were still recovering, but I saw it all.and I will never fully recover. For the past three years, I've locked myself away in my upstairs room at the Burrow allowing few to visit me, and only coming out for meals and showers. My existence has been nothing more than a living hell as I allow myself to remember every minute detail.  
  
I remember early into my first year of seclusion after graduation I was looking over my Prefect badge. Looking back at those last two years at Hogwarts, I find it amazing that my breakdown waited until after I graduated. I, like Harry, never made it to "Head Boy", but I can honestly say I would have crumpled under the pressure. I was running my hand over the gilded surface of my badge when it hit me: This could have been Hermione's, but she died before she was ever able to take that honor. I had thrown the pin out of my top floor window, loosing sight of it as it fell to the earth of the Burrow's back yard.  
  
Those are my thoughts and what not, but I'm supposed to be writing about recent happenings, too. Stupid homework.  
  
Harry visited me last week-his beloved Cho was not to be seen, apparently she was off at some Quidditch tournament. She was the best Chudley Cannons seeker in history. I was sitting in my floor, reading the latest Wizarding Music Magazine, when his head stuck through the door, and he immediately spoke in his deep, reassuring voice. "Blimey, Ron, you have got to come out of your bloody room sooner or later!"  
  
I had sighed as we'd been through it a thousand times before, and I was sick of being told to move on. "Harry.I lost the one person in my life who brought me any happiness at all.and you know what the last thing I said to her was? 'I like spending time with you.'"  
  
Harry had tried to speak up, to calm me down, but I had worked myself up to being a rival to the ghoul who had vacated my side of the house for easier pickings, "For shit's sake.I loved her Harry.and all I said was that.that's it.I am such a jackass." I broke down then.  
  
Harry patted my back, "Ron, she knew your feelings, just as you knew hers.but she would want you to move on.not stay some hermit in your room for the rest of your long, wizard days. Hermione would want you to find love, Ron."  
  
I had looked up at my friend who had grown up so much since our Hogwarts days. His hair was as unruly as ever and the scar still rested on his forehead, but so much had changed. He was a good six feet tall with broad shoulders and defined muscles. A shaggy three-days-growth beard that was popular among Muggle men graced his face. Harry's eyes were very much different. Deep within their emerald depths I saw pain beyond reckoning.  
  
I don't know exactly what happened in that final battle between Harry and Voldemort, but the Boy Who Lived held all that pain in his eyes like a beacon calling out for someone to erase the image from his mind. Harry had won, but at what cost to himself? Harry, however being Harry Potter, used what inner strength was endowed on him to come out of it all and lead somewhat of a normal life (as normal as Harry's life could be I suppose).  
  
I'm a firm believer in the statement "life goes on," but I just can't allow it to do so. A part of me doesn't want to let go of the past, but I know I must. Even though I don't want to lose the past, lose the memory of Hermione, I have, on the urgings of Harry, Cho, and all my remaining comrades from school, have begun to plan my reemergence. Harry has offered me a job at the Daily Prophet where he continued his Quidditch obsession by becoming a sports writer and has moved up to editor-in-chief, one of the youngest ever. After the war, Harry never picked up his broom again-like he had lost all will to ride, fly, and seek, effectively ending his promising career as a Quidditch player. However, he still loved the sport, and kept some contact with it through his job.  
  
I plan to move out of the Burrow and stop being such a burden to my dear parents, who have endured so much on my account in three years. Cho has talked about several fine parties and people to meet, but I told her I wasn't ready for what she was really trying to cook up, as my heart was still too broken.  
  
I can chuckle, yes, actually chuckle, when I look at Harry and Cho. Soon after the death of Cedric Diggory, they somehow found their way into each other's arms. One was the former lover who was torn by the death, and the other, a friend who had seen the actual demise. Their long talks would go far into the night, and the owling was almost constant. Right before Voldemort's attack, they were officially a "couple" and had pulled each other through everything. I could admire them. They've been together for almost five years now. I haven't heard any plans for marriage as of yet, but the two have been living together for more than a year, and I know one day they'll make it official, as they've already begun the "settling down" process. I just hope that things will turn out as happily for me as it has for them, but then again, I may never work out the problems inside me.  
  
I suppose I can wrap this up now. My bloody "doctor" said I should write down my feelings, and I have. Ginny, are you happy?  
  
* * * * * *  
  
My writings were suddenly interrupted as a knock came at my door. "Yes?" I muttered, sitting up on my bright orange bedspread, thankful for the respite from writing as my arm felt as if it were rotting in its socket.  
  
Bill poked his head in the door and asked, "Want to get some lunch, Ron."  
  
I nodded, somehow saying in that one movement I'll be down when I damn well feel like it. He began to leave, but then came back inside my room and questioned. "Feeling better?"  
  
I looked at him ponderously. "You've asked me that every day for the past two weeks, since you've returned from Africa in that secret expedition I'm not supposed to know about."  
  
He smiled. "And?"  
  
I sighed. "I feel the same."  
  
He chuckled comfortingly and walked over to my bed and plopped down. The ponytail that flopped down his back mirrored my own, which I had been growing for some time. I, however, had not managed to work up the balls enough to get a fang pushed through my ear. He glanced down at the parchment on my bed and asked, "What are you working on?  
  
I smiled the first smile of the day. "Homework for Dr. Ginny."  
  
Bill chuckled. "She's been having us all taking bloody tests and keeping thought journals. Who would have guessed that our little Ginny would want to be a psychiawitch!"  
  
I glanced at the picture sitting on my dresser of her. "I think it had to do with a journal and her first 'patient' long ago, but our little Ginny isn't little any longer."  
  
Bill nodded in agreement as he, too, looked at the picture. Ginny, now twenty-one, turned out to be a very attractive witch. She held a natural allure and beauty that had won, and broken, the hearts of many men, as she hadn't settled on any one person yet. Her long red hair was highlighted with golden streaks and was always styled in the latest fashions. Her bright eyes shone forth with an intelligent twinkle that alluded to the soul flourishing beneath the beauty of a woman. She was a model, and was considered the favorite to win the "Miss Wizard World" Pageant, but soon after the competition she had decided to turn her attention to more academic pursuits, giving up modeling, but maybe not acting (as Drama was on her course study at the Atlantis Academy for Higher Learning in New Atlantis). Percy was proud, but Fred and George weren't.they wanted her to continue on with showing the world just how hot the Weasley children could be.  
  
Thinking of the twins, I asked Bill. "Are Fred and George coming tonight?" Tonight was the celebration of my twenty-second birthday.  
  
Bill nodded, "Yes, and brining their lovely wives as well.who would have thought that twins would marry twins!" Bill was, of course, referring to the fact that Fred and George had landed the hands of Parvarti and Padma Patil, who were now both Patil-Weasleys. Mum had not been keen on the twins marrying so young, but for once in the two crazy men's lives, Fred and George were truly in love, as were Parvarti and Padma, who would both be celebrating their twenty-second birthdays later in the year.  
  
Bill, after several minutes of silence had lapsed, stood and said, "Let's go scrounge up some food for lunch. Your dinner feast is still many hours away."  
  
I smiled, rolled up my parchment, and followed him down the winding stairs.  
  
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I glanced up at the wizard clock on the wall. Seeing as the hand marked "Mum" was at the store, it would be up to Bill and I to find some food that was edible without cooking, as neither of us had ever taken the time to actually learn to.well.cook.  
  
Looking through the contents of the muggle/wizard refrigerator, I looked up at Bill in exasperation and made the phrase that had been heard in all households, both muggle and wizard alike. "There is NOTHING to eat in this house."  
  
Bill glanced in the fridge, agreed, and then thought of something else. Well, nothing we can eat without cooking." Checking the wizard clock just to make sure, he continued. "So, Ginny is out in the garden-let's get her to cook us something!"  
  
I nodded in agreement to the overly enthused Bill. I had taken to treating him like he was the most important person in the world whenever we were together as he and two-year girlfriend Fleur Delacour had recently broken up. Fleur was no making advances on Charlie ("Because he iz ze rugged type," she would say in her posh French accent), and I could honestly say that I could not exactly feel the love in the Weasley household at times.  
  
Walking outside we spied Ginny reading in her usual lawn chair as she had every day since her return from the "Miss English Witch" competition where she had snagged the top honors of being named Miss England. I muttered to Bill out of the corner of my mouth. "So much for preparing for Miss Wizarding World."  
  
He chuckled as we approached the gorgeous Weasley, and she looked up at us, pulling her sunglasses to the tip of her nose so she could see over them at us. "I'm not cooking for you two. You have to learn sooner or later." She went back to reading.  
  
I happened to glance at the book that seemed to be taking enough attention from her that she couldn't cook for Bill, and I and almost gasped. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Looking at the small wicker table beside her chair, I saw that it was just one of seven books just like it. I had heard about these books, written by a Muggle woman who had met Harry after his graduation at a small English coffee house where she had been spending her time writing on napkins. Thinking hard, I remembered her name to be something like, Joanne Rewling, Jennie Rowling.oh what was it.JK ROWLING!! That's right, JK Rowling. Harry had apparently trusted the woman enough to tell her all about his years at Hogwarts, but it was a big shock to us all when they finally printed and swept the Muggle world by storm, that he had given her the rights to publish his story in a fantastic manner in the Muggle world. But seven books' worth? How long had they been talking? Of course, most Muggles shrugged the whole series off as the workings of an imaginary, if not a bit strange, mind. This didn't bother the wizarding world at all, as we liked to keep our privacy from the Muggles, but with each passing year this became harder and harder, and I wasn't quite sure these books were working against us.  
  
The Rowling woman had portrayed me as nothing less than a sodding idiot, and I had yet to read past the first four books. I was rather offended actually, but I suppose it was all in good fun and the betterment of reading everywhere. Not to mention economies of some small countries, as the books had topped the charts everywhere.  
  
Disgruntled, we walked back inside, and looked over the interior of the refrigerator again. I glanced up at him and finally muttered. "It can't be THAT hard. I mean, if mum does it EVERY day, then it can't be too difficult, right?"  
  
He nodded, not sure but also not wanting to disagree. "Yea. We have recipes here and we can whip up something with ease. Just follow the directions." He held up mum's massive recipe book that must have been held together with magic from the sight of the bulging three-ring binder.  
  
Taking out one small card that read "Grilled Cheese," I read over it once, and smiled. "This looks like a peace of cake. Okay, first, you need to get out the skillet."  
  
Bill looked in the cabinet and pulled out a deep pasta dish. "This?" He said, holding it up as if it were a foreign object, which apparently it was.  
  
I shook my head. "No, it should be big around, but very flat." After several minutes searching he finally found the right pan and placed it on the stove. Taking out my wand I zapped underneath it to get the fire going, and then continued to read the directions. "We need bread." Using the simple Accio spell I called for the bread, which was in the bread cabinet in the hall. I heard a loud thump, and suddenly the whole of the bread cabinet was zooming through the door of the kitchen and right at me. "No! Stop, stop!" It did as it was told and I muttered, more specifically. "Accio Loaf of Bread!" The door opened and a single loaf flew out of the cabinet and into my arms. As I continued reading the directions, Bill levitated the closet back out into the hall.  
  
I began to mutter to myself as I continued gathering the ingredients. "Accio butter. Accio butter knife. Accio cheese." When I finally had all the utensils and ingredients, I began to slather copious amounts of butter onto the bread and stick cheese between two pieces. This is easy. I thought as I picked up another piece.  
  
Bill walked in to the kitchen. "What is that smell?" He stopped, staring at the stove in horror.  
  
Turning around, I let out a string of curses. Apparently my fire spell had been a bit stronger than I thought it would be. A roaring flame was leaping into the air through the middle of what used to be one of mum's frying pans.  
  
Dousing the flames I started to clean up the molten mess of iron. When I had used every cleaning spell I knew (and granted, that isn't much) and the stove was spotless again, I turned around. Bill was standing there eating the buttered bread. I started to advance on him. He held up his hands. "What?!"  
  
I almost zapped him with a spell to cause him to throw up slugs the whole day, but because it was my birthday and I didn't want it ruined, I stalked out of the kitchen, the frying pan with the hole in my hand.  
  
Stomping up the stairs with a still empty stomach, I took a left instead of right turn at the landing, and headed up the ghoul's new home in the other wing of the attic. Opening up the door and pulling down the ladder, I walked up into the darkness to the sound of the ghoul clanging what sounded like a metal road ringing against a tambourine. Seeing its beady eyes shining at me from the darkness, I took the pan up in my hand, and chucked it in his general direction.  
  
Jumping down the ladder, I chuckled at the sound of the ghouls cursing. Ha! Who's the terror now!  
  
Heading back up to my room, I decided it was high time that I start getting ready for the party. Glancing at my watch I noticed that I had little more than three hours before the whole charade was to begin. I hadn't seen the invitation list yet (first thing to do once I got ready), but I figured that mum had invited pretty much the entire wizarding population of England. Twenty-two was a big age for wizards. I'm not sure why, of course, but ever since I can remember my parents always went all out on the twenty-second (maybe because this was usually the age where the fledgling Weasleys went into the world and stopped being a perpetual mouth to feed). If mum went to the store for more than ten minutes, it means she is planning to cook for an army.  
  
Sighing, I pushed the door of my room open. I looked around and smiled. This room was all that was left of the innocence of my childhood, and when I moved out, it would stay here. I suppose twenty-two was an important age after all.  
  
Quickly changing, I headed back down stairs. Noticing that mum's hand on the wizarding clock was finally back on home, I bounded into the kitchen where I was sure my adventure for the day, was about to start.  
  
Crikey, was I EVER right!  
  
* * * * * *  
  
Special Thanks: First and foremost to Jenny (Sorcress Grey)! You have been (and continue to be) an immense help in the development of this fanfic. You've taught me to not throw around the "I'm a newbie so I have a reason to suck" phrase as much.and I feel that jumping into this crazy world has been a bit easier with your help! To Mel: You were an enormous help in editing, as always ;).you are a walking dictionary, and it is just one of the traits I love so much about you! Thank you for teaching me that accidentally spelling McGonagall with only one 'l' at the end is indeed a sin, and as you can see.it is now reconciled ;). To Megan: You may not have been a Beta for my fanfic, but I thank you continuously for all the support you've given me. It has helped tremendously in my journey to get out "Ron's" story to hear you say that it is great, even when I don't think it is! To AngieJ.you may not know me, but you've definitely influenced my. The reason I leapt into this world was because I read your Trouble in Paradise fanfic, and it made me realize that I could reach out with my writing this way, 


	2. A Party to be Remembered

The Simplest of Emotions  
  
By: Lance Walker  
  
Rating: PG-13-for language, sexual innuendo, possible sexual situations (we'll see where it takes me)  
  
Spoilers: All Books  
  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
  
Story Note: It is three years after the graduation of Ron's class from Hogwarts. More importantly, however, it is the third year after the end of the Second Voldemort War, and the start of the Dumbledorian Concord. The war is over, and the world is rebuilding, but Ron is not. Since his graduation he has locked himself away in his room in the burrow and lived the life of a hermit. Now, after these three years, he has decided to enter into the world again. On his first day into the world, his twenty- second birthday, however, he learns something that shocks all the foundations of his life, and threatens his return to hermitage.but this time, Ron will confront the mystery, and in so doing, confront the past he so wants to forget. Ron's problems, however, seem to be nothing compared to what the wizarding world is facing. Will he be able to handle it all? Or will he go back to where he is safe.possible still safe. His resilience, as well as the resilience of the whole wizarding world will be tested as things unravel, new and old horrors are released, and people thought long dead, find a way back into the light.  
  
Author's Note: Any and all questions, comments, or suggestions can be sent to me at any time, and I will appreciate them immensely! This process is extremely hard and time consuming, but I have finally found another passion.might as well hold on to it ;)  
  
Chapter 2  
  
A Party to be Remembered  
  
I blasted into the kitchen where mum was working hard on my birthday feast. I gave her a kiss on the cheek.  
  
"So, what are we having?"  
  
I sat back to drink in her dazed expression and tried to act innocent. "What?"  
  
Molly Weasley spoke up then. "I thought I was seeing a ghost! Bless me; you've left your room!! I knew that this day would come!" She began to fret over me with endless kisses on the cheek and several salty tears falling from her joyous eyes.  
  
"Oh come now, mum.it was going to happen sooner or later, and what better day than my twenty-second birthday!" I opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle. I blew the cap off with a spell and then said, "I'm going to call Harry and tell him to bring more of this stuff."  
  
Mum glanced at me. "No, that's okay, I'll tell him when he calls to make certain of the final plans. It's 'Smarkloft,' right?"  
  
I chuckled. "'Smirnoff,' mum. Smirnoff Ice."  
  
She looked up. "I still don't think you should be drinking that, dear."  
  
I laughed once more, an apparent record for me, as I left the kitchen in search of the party invite list. As I searched I heard mum clattering around in the kitchen. Finally, she called out to me. "Ron, have you seen my favourite frying pan?"  
  
I smiled and answered. "Mum, do I ever cook?" It wasn't a lie, just an omission of the truth. She took the line and I went back to looking. Apparently she believed the fact, and didn't notice the increased pounding of the enraged ghoul upstairs. I finally found the invitation list in the Floo powder jar. I unrolled the parchment and smiled. Leave it to mum to invite every wizard and witch I had ever known.  
  
Glancing over the list I mentally checked off names of people I hadn't seen since Hogwarts days. Angelina and Oliver were coming with their two bouncing children, Eric "Bludger" Wood and Douglas "Snitch" Wood.I had yet to ask.  
  
My eyes fell on Harry's entourage that included Cho, Sirius Black (with his American wife and three children James, Lily, and Sirius Jr.), Professor Lupin (still a bachelor, I'm afraid), and several other high-ranking members of the wizarding world, including half the Chudley Canons Quidditch team.  
  
Several of my former Hogwarts teachers were invited, but I didn't expect many to show as most would have to be at the school to watch the wizards and witches in training of today. The people who would be there for sure were Headmistress McGonagall, Madame Pomfry, Professor Flitwick, Hagrid, and Professor Snape. Professor Snape! I thought, screaming the name like an obscenity in my mind. Looking back on my years at Hogwarts, Snape was not a person I remembered as being a blessing. Granted, he saved our lives several times, but he still made daily school life hell. Oh well, if he actually showed I'd smile and bear it. He had been named a hero after the final battle, and I can honestly say if it weren't for him more students would have died. I heard from Parvarti herself that Snape held off a score of Death Eaters himself as he tried to escape with the students who weren't fighting from Ravenclaw into the Forbidden Forrest where the centaurs and Aragog had formed somewhat of an alliance (upon the urgings of Hagrid) to provide shelter for the students of Hogwarts.  
  
The list was two rolls long, and I began to get the impression that this wasn't the only list. For some reason one name at the very end of the second roll was only half written, as if the person who had been writing it got distracted before he or she realized they were out of room.  
  
Looking over both rolls one last time I counted at least twenty people I had never met before in my entire life, which wasn't surprising as Weasley get togethers were always big occasions anyways, and also I noted that several people were missing from the list that I would have added, but I can see why mother wouldn't have (like inviting Norbert the dragon, for example).  
  
I took the time to take note of any people who hadn't yet replied to let my mum know they were coming, and Fleur Delacour was one of them. She was under Charlie's name, which surprised me, as I didn't know that they had made their dating (also known as sex with benefits to Charlie) official. Hoping that Bill and Charlie would both still be alive at the end of the night I finished glancing over the rolls.  
  
I don't know why, but I found myself looking and hoping to find Hermione's name on the list.but of course it wasn't there. It never would be.  
  
Quickly dropping the paper, I walked out into the garden where Bill and Charlie were setting up several extremely long tables with their usual competitive flair. Wiping a single tear from my eye, I looked around for a moment and spied Ginny reclining in the same chair she had been before, reading a book by some Muggle psychologist named Freud rather than the Harry Potter books she had been reading before, which were stacked high on the wicker table next to her chair. Before offering my services to my brothers, I decided I could waste time talking to my sister. Before I sat down, she stated, "You've locked yourself in your room for three years because you have suppressed sexual feelings towards mum."  
  
I immediately thought that wizardly labor would be better than this. I stuttered. "Where did you get that idea?"  
  
"Sigmund." She meant Freud, but she said it as if they were on a first name basis.old chums, actually. "He says that all things return to sex, or the lack of it, I suppose." She smiled at her quippish joke.  
  
"You have no idea what my sex life is like...I have a sex life!" I said, blushing, as I had never actually HAD a sex life except almost that one time with Hermione before.but I wasn't going to let Ginny know that!  
  
"If you count your hand as a partner.but if not, your sex life is nonexistent." She laughed. Ginny may be smarter than us all.but she could still be a 20-year-old bitch sometimes.  
  
I walked away, hoping that my two older brothers would be kinder to me. They saw me coming, and Bill lost concentration and dropped the immense table he had zooming across the lawn in a crash course towards Charlie's unsuspecting table which was floating indolently around the lawn. It fell to the ground with a clatter as Bill yelped. "Shit, mum will be furious if she finds us destroying the bloody furniture again!"  
  
Charlie laughed. "Damn it, Bill, you are always getting me into trouble with that storm of a woman! And besides, it's always you playing with the furniture anyways!"  
  
Bill stared harshly at Charlie, but before he could maim his brother (and not just for the reason he had just been accused of several things, but I somehow thought it was more for the theft of the notorious Veela, Fleur Delacour) they all turned at the sound of a very loud voice. "Bill! Charlie! Did you say what I think you said?!"  
  
Bill stammered, "Sod it, mum.they're just curse words! We are a bloody thirty years old and it isn't-"  
  
Charlie cut him off. "No, mother! We were just saying what a great mum you are to all of us! Simply marv!"  
  
Mrs. Weasley pulled her head back inside the window it had been stuck out of and we all immediately burst into laughter.  
  
"Crikey, Bill! You never admit to mum that you have a foul mouth. That would dash her beliefs that all but Fred and George are angel children. We can't have that, now can we?" I was still laughing.  
  
Charlie looked at me with a smile. "You seem in a better mood today, Ron. I'm glad to see that after so long."  
  
I almost answered, but Ginny, who had just walked up to us on her super- model legs, snorted. "He has finally come to grips with his repressed sexual feelings. He's decided to shag mum."  
  
I let out a string of expletives as I chased her across the yard with mum's voice ringing out again, "Ron? Are you using foul language?"  
  
******  
  
I opened the door with an enormous grin on my face to combat the surprised expression on my best friend's face. "Harry! Come in! Let me take that for you!" I grabbed the two packs of Smirnoff Ice that Harry was carrying and let him pass. I pulled Cho in gracefully and gave her a small peck on her cheek-a slightly green cheek. The gorgeous oriental was wearing a deep blue dress robe that shimmered in the bright sunlight falling through the large window in the living room. Her hair was pulled up with a small clip and then let to fall down like a fountain in thousands of small ringlets of raven down her back. She gave me a weak smile and then quickly headed for the bathroom. Harry looked nervous, "She isn't feeling well.stomach virus or something." He was fidgeting, so I didn't press it.what is there to worry about with a little sickness? Harry was dressed to the nines as usual. His lucrative business as Editor in Chief of the most popular wizarding publication in the world offered him the ability to spend his money freely. His clean pressed dress robes were the latest fashion, but his hair still didn't cooperate with much else than washing it and shaking it out. The mop sat on his head in the manner of the "messed" look that had started to sweep the Muggle children.  
  
I joked as we walked down the hall. "Madam Pomfry has been invited, she could look at Cho later!" Harry joined my laughter, but I could almost swear that his cheeks tinged a bit green as well.  
  
Suddenly, I was worried. "Harry.is something wrong?" I put the drinks down on the kitchen table. "You seriously don't look well." And it was true. Harry looked as if he was functioning on about three hours sleep, and his whiskers were shaggy rather than the neat cut he usually kept. I led him upstairs and into my personal bathroom where I handed him my trimmer, which I hadn't used since I had stopped growing a goatee long ago.  
  
He passed over his face closely as I asked again. "Harry.what's wrong? You look like hell! Does this have to do with Cho being sick? I'm sure she's okay, mate. Just a stomach virus like you said."  
  
Harry put my trimmer down and sighed, "Ron.there is something I need to tell you.and.well.I think you should-" He began, but the bathroom door opened and Cho walked in, her face looking less green, and he stopped. Cho smiled. "What are you ladies doing in here, eh?"  
  
Harry smiled that same smile he had smiled since the first time he ever laid eyes on Cho. He spoke up. "Oh nothing, luv. Ron was just lending me his razor.mine died this morning." He said the last bit a little forcefully, as if wanted Cho to agree, which she did, but I still took note.  
  
Cho spoke again. "Ron, your mum was looking for you. She said she needed you two to help her take the refreshments outside." Cho left, and Harry gave me a shrug that said I'll tell you later. He walked past me and I followed eagerly.  
  
It turned out that my mother did not need our help after all as my father apparated in from work at the moment we got down stairs. He immediately levitated the whole of the refreshment and drink table outside into the lawn, where several wayward tablecloths were dancing around thanks to the spells of Bill and Charlie. Harry, Cho, and I walked outside and were immediately greeted with the smiling face of Sirius Black and his charming, beautiful wife, Emily Black. The "puppet show" was for the benefit of their three children who were dancing around underneath the flying tablecloths with glee.  
  
Sirius walked up to me, placed two hands on my shoulder, and then gave me a big, fatherly hug. When he finally pulled back he said, "I'm glad to see you out and about, Ron.it really killed me to see you in so much pain." I smiled. His name cleared by the Ministry (with the help of Dumbledore), Sirius was able to come out of hiding. He had been living in America since the whole Dementors event during my third year, and that was where he had met the woman who now occupied his arm. Since he came out of hiding, he had been able to become a full time father for Harry, as was his job as Godfather, and I had become something of an adopted son to the Black family.  
  
I thanked Sirius, gave Emily a small kiss on the cheek, and welcomed them to the party. I turned around to survey the garden that was still slightly empty, but I knew that before the night was over, it would be full of old friends.  
  
******  
  
I was sitting at the head of one of the long tables set in the lawn. Thousands of floating candles-courtesy of Bill and Charlie, apparently flying things were their specialty-illuminated the darkness, allowing this one place in the entire street to be light in the darkness of the night.  
  
Everyone was laughing, and I laughed along as Harry told a story from our first year at Hogwarts. His deep, reassuring voice rang across the lawn from his seat at my right hand. "Well.if it hadn't been for the simple fact that my wand got stuck up the thing's nose, Ron and I would have been jam! While the thing was trying to get my now thoroughly mucus coated wand away from his nostril, Ron pulled off the wingardium leviosa spell which had been giving him so much trouble, and in the process, knocked out the troll with his own club!" Everyone clapped at the ending, and I joined in. The story reminded me of Hermione.just as every other story from Hogwarts would.  
  
At that moment Remus Lupin stood up from a table over, where he was sitting with Sirius and his family and raised his glass. "This is to you, Ron, a great student, but an even greater friend." "Hear, Hear!" rang out from everywhere as they all toasted this. I looked around once again at all the smiling faces. Everyone had made it, even Neville Longbottom, who had actually turned out to be a very tall, handsome wizard. Dean Thomas was nodding his enthusiasm along with everyone else at his table where he sat next to Seamus Finnigan.  
  
Suddenly a smell wafted across the lawn, and all heads turned to see my mum walking with three whole tables of food floating in front of her, helped by the twins. Everyone cheered and clapped at the sight of all the food, which mother had been slaving over all day. She set the tables down, and then Professor McGonagall, who had taken Dumbledore's position as Head of Hogwarts after his unfortunate death, stood up.  
  
"As a Headmistress trying desperately to fill the large shoes left behind by our dear Albus Dumbledore, I will do my best to maintain his flair for social comments. If I recall correctly, Dumbledore would say 'Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!' at such an occasion, and I suppose I shall, too. If anyone would enjoy seeing what a top-notch man you've become, Ron, it would be him. He used to always point you out to me in the halls and say, 'That Weasley child will be something special to the world, more so than any Weasley before him.' I would think simply that the only thing you offered to the world was an incessant need to be late to class!" Everyone laughed at this, and she continued. "But I now see that he was right. Of all the Weasleys, you are the most well rounded, down to earth, and the one with the brightest future. You may not be the top-notch leader or the joke business entrepreneurs or the dragon trainer or Charm Breaker or the super model.even if you have stolen some hearts tonight with your handsome features! But you are most definitely a Weasley who could be any of the above and more. Congratulations, Ron, on the behalf of Hogwarts, myself, and of course, Dumbledore. I'm sure he himself has taken time from his current Great Adventure to stop his action and peer down on our gathering with a smile and a wish for future happiness. You've become more than a wizard.you've become a man. We welcome you to the world, and a world that today is far safer. It has been three years since the end of the Interregnum, five since the death of Voldemort himself, and the wizarding world is finally beginning to come out of its state of fear. The boom in population has ensured our survival, strengthened our economy, and boosted our hopes and dreams. As that generation is born, your generation, Ron, is taking hold of the world as it is. You are coming back into a world that still has much rebuilding to do, but with your help, I'm sure things will go smoothly." She raised her wand and charmed the food, which immediately was transported to all the tables where plates suddenly began to fill. She looked at me for a moment, and I nodded my thanks to her after wiping a tear from my eye.  
  
I was enjoying the magnificent food when something landed on the table in front of me, right in the mashed potatoes. "Errol! I thought you weren't flying letter routes anymore!" My own personal owl, a great horned owl named Astarael from a fantasy book by a Muggle author named Garth Nix I had once read, was currently out delivering a package to the Granger family for me. I picked the poor owl up from his perch in the potatoes, and he promptly dropped the letter he was carrying on my plate. After seeing that I had got it, he immediately went to eating the potatoes off of his feathers.  
  
Looking over the letter I popped the seal and opened it. Becoming more confused with every sentence I finally got to the end and let out a gasp. I read it again just to be sure, looked up and around to see if anyone was laughing at his or her cruel joke. No one was.this wasn't sent by anyone at this party. What the hell? I thought, reading it another five times. I felt someone's eyes on me, and I looked up to see Harry looking at me worriedly. I stood up, excused myself and then ran inside. Collapsing in the living room, the tears began to flow. I felt a hand on my back, and I looked up to see Harry and Cho standing behind me. "What is it, Ron?" Cho asked.  
  
I handed her the letter and she and Harry read it. They both practically collapsed at the sight. "T-this can't be." Harry stammered, looking over the letter again.  
  
"No.it can't.we all know what happened.it can't be." Cho said, handing the letter back to Harry and brushing a wayward lock of hair out of her face and behind her ear.  
  
I took the letter back again, looked at the conclusion. It was signed: Much Love, yours forever and always, Hermione Granger.  
  
.to be continued in Chapter 3, Multiple Bombshells  
  
Okay.special thanks out to my Beta, Jenny(SorcressGrey), and my grammar queen, Mel! Also, another shout out to AngieJ whose Trouble in Paradise fanfic continues to inspire me. You are amazing! Also to all the great people in the forums who have helped so much with my initiation into the realm of fan fiction. Like Ron I've stepped out of one life, and into another, and it is not an easy task I can tell you, but with everyone's help I will survive. Thanks to the reviewers (all of you are listed below).it is good to know that you guys liked my story!  
  
******  
  
.And here is my little thank you to all of those who reviewed Chapter 1!!!  
  
Don't worry about Hermione, or at least as you might assume from the end of this Chapter, don't count here out (Thanks to you HGWeasley!). Thanks so much for the review and I hope to please in the next chapter even more.I'll try to twinkle a bit as well ;) (Thanks for the great review, Twinkle.and the smilies!). Thank for the review Jess! We'll continue the madness in UY, as always, I'll see you around there! (Tovaneres). Thank you so much for teaching me a new word, and I'm glad you'll return for the next chapters.metafication.I'll have to remember that! (Thanks SJO for the review and the word!) Finally I see your review, Aless! Thanks for all the private critiquing sessions ;) (Your review got "published" as well dear.thanks for the Review!). Your writing is very good as well, Victoria! I can't wait till our next RPG! (Thanks for the review VictoriaAnne). Lol.everyone has mentioned the Hermione thing, I hope the end of Chapter 2 has people wondering. Wet behind the ears is an English phrase meaning "still inexperienced". People who haven't been doing things for very long are still wet behind the ears ;). (Thank you so much for the grand review Ainadilwen!) 


	3. Multiple Bombshells

The Simplest of Emotions By: Lance Walker  
  
Author's E-mail: uy_lance@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG-13-for language, sexual innuendo, possible sexual situations (we'll see where it takes me)  
  
Spoilers: All Books  
  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
  
Story Note: It is three years after the graduation of Ron's class from Hogwarts. More importantly, however, it is the third year after the end of the Second Voldemort War, and the start of the Dumbledorian Concord. The war is over, and the world is rebuilding, but Ron is not. Since his graduation he has locked himself away in his room in the burrow and lived the life of a hermit. Now, after these three years, he has decided to enter into the world again. On his first day into the world, his twenty- second birthday, however, he learns something that shocks all the foundations of his life, and threatens his return to hermitage.but this time, Ron will confront the mystery, and in so doing, confront the past he so wants to forget. Ron's problems, however, seem to be nothing compared to what the wizarding world is facing. Will he be able to handle it all? Or will he go back to where he is safe? His resilience, as well as the resilience of the whole wizarding world will be tested as things unravel, new and old horrors are released, and people long dead, find a way back into the light.  
  
Author's Note: Any and all questions, comments, or suggestions can be sent to me at any time, and I will appreciate them immensely! This process is extremely hard and time consuming, but I have finally found another passion.might as well hold on to it ;)  
  
The Simplest of Emotions  
  
Chapter 3 Multiple Bombshells  
  
**STORY NOTE** In the first chapter, I mentioned that it has been "five years since the hell began and ended." For those of you who are joining me now for the fourth Chapter in Ron's story, I would like to make clear that I am editing that. The luxury of making sure a whole book is chronologically correct is lost when you post something chapter by chapter; so let it be known that the correct timeline is as follows. The war begins, as the canon suggests (according to the end of the GoF), in Ron's Fifth year (1995-1996). In that same year, according to my fic, Voldemort is killed, but the war continues as the various evil sects are hunted by Aurors. The minions of the king of evil did not flee and scatter as they did at the end of VW1. As the war continues, Hogwarts school goes on, without Albus Dumbledore. Ron and Harry graduate in 1998, and the war officially ends that same year, and the Dumbledorian Concord is established. So, for a quick "sum it all up"-The war lasted for all of Ron's Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh year's at Hogwarts.a full three years. Soon after the graduation of Ron and Harry, the war ends, and the world declares a peace. Three years later, this story begins in the year 2001.  
  
Much love, yours forever and always, Hermione Granger.  
  
"What is going on?" Harry asked, his voice urgent. He, too, was reading the letter again and again.and each time it still ended with Hermione. I was too shocked to know. My life had suddenly been turned upside down. This couldn't be happening-it just couldn't. Hermione was dead!  
  
I turned to Cho, whose face had turned a considerable shade of green as she sat on my sofa. Taking my mind off the letter for a second I quested. "What the hell is wrong with you two?"  
  
Harry knew exactly what I was asking about, but he stammered something about 'being worried about the letter.'  
  
I sighed, "There is something other than the letter bothering you. Cho is definitely sick; you are nervous and apparently haven't slept in Merlin knows how long. What is wrong?"  
  
Cho looked me square in the eyes, "Ron.we'll tell you once we have time to think it over ourselves. This letter is more important at the moment." Her answer left no room for argument; she was as stout as a Bludger in her resolve. I didn't press it.I knew they would tell me in due time.  
  
I looked over the letter once more, reading it all again, just to verify its validity to my barely conceiving mind:  
  
Dearest Ron,  
  
I know it has been some time since last I saw you, and I am definitely sorry for my absence from your life. You meant the world to me, and as you know, I would never dream of harming you in any manner, physical, emotional, or spiritual.  
  
I tell you this now for the simple fact that I know that today, March 1st, is your twenty-second birthday. I wish you all the happiness in the world, and I hope that one day, I can share in that happiness again. You were once the light of my life, but that was taken away, and now.I have only darkness.  
  
You once told me that you felt like a Ghost in a land of living with the whole of the world crumbling around you as you stood and watched in horror. I can tell you now that I know exactly how you feel. I am that Ghost, as you say, and I am watching my world crumble.I have for five years.  
  
I have however, as they say, been released from purgatory, and this is my first outreach into the world I once knew. I sincerely hope it hasn't changed too much. I can see you now, surrounded by friends, hopefully not thinking to much of me, or at least not as much as I of you. I'm sure you have completely moved on in your life and have become the successful wizard I always knew you would.  
  
If it isn't too much to ask, I hope that you would allow me to, once again, step into your life. I won't say when, where, or how as I'm sure you will be perplexed beyond reason at this letter, but I can say that things will be explained in time. You will know all that I can tell you, but I warn you now, that that is not everything. Some things are better left unsaid. Some nightmares are to frightening to revisit.  
  
I will turn now, away from this parchment, and step onto the bright streets of Notting Hill. I think of you at every step I take, and I swear by the wings of my heart, and the thought of you that resides within me, that I will find you, and we will be together.  
  
Much love, yours forever and always, Hermione Granger  
  
P.S: Tell Harry that the trio will be together again.soon.  
  
After reading through it again, I wanted to refute it all as being some big joke, but I knew deep inside that that was Hermione's careful scrawl. There was no doubting that either she wrote the letter, or it was an extremely well done forgery. I couldn't shake from my mind the feeling that someone was trying to pull one over on me. Malfoy? He definitely had the means, and hatred he probably still harbored for me after all these years, but would even he stoop so low as to impersonate the image of a dead friend? Would he risk giving up where he was hiding just to injure me? I would hope not.  
  
Harry was still trying to reason through the mental fog that had engulfed all our visions. ".but no one escapes Avada Kedavra.it just isn't possible."  
  
I caught this, the last of an apparently long statement, and I turned on him. "But YOU did, Harry!"  
  
He glanced up, reflexively felt his scar, and stammered. "Yes.but I still don't know how. No one does. Apparently SOMETHING can counteract the spell, but it hasn't happened since, and I would believe that if anybody could do it, Dumbledore could." He left the end of that statement and we all saw what happened to him hanging in the thick air.  
  
It was at that very moment that my mother decided to break up our party. "Ron, Harry, Cho.you all have been in here for quite some time. This is your party, Ron, and we all miss your company." Without waiting for a reply, she bustled the three of us outside and into the midst of the wizards and witches again.  
  
Before I could think, a large hand grasped my shoulder and spun me around. I came face to face with a very large belt buckle. I looked up to see Hagrid grinning down at me through his wild mane of hair and his long beard. He spoke up as soon as he knew I was listening. "Sorry 'bout being late, young Weasley, but I 'ad a problem at 'Ogwarts that needed attending to."  
  
"No problem, Hagrid. I'm glad you could come." I tried to mask the despair in my voice, but I was only succeeding enough to fool the usually happy half-giant. Thinking about Hagrid in general led me back to memories of Hermione. Days we visited him at his little snow covered hut on the castle grounds; finding out about his being a half giant during our fourth year; Hermione discovering that Skeeter woman being an unregistered Animagi. I tried to carry on a conversation, but Hagrid soon drifted off with my apparent lack of interest. Sorry, old bean. I just can't face you yet, I thought as my eyes followed his enormous back all the way over to McGonagall's table. I suddenly had a strange urging to follow him, as talking with McGonagall seemed suddenly like a very needed process. I, however, decided against it as I glanced once more around the party scene.  
  
Something in my brain had kicked my body into "fight or flight" mode, and I was just about to bolt into to the Burrow and up into my room to lock myself away for three more years, when someone come up from behind me and hugged me. Turning around I was startled by the appearance of Lavender Brown, a Hogwart's student I hadn't seen in years. I knew that she had, at one time, worked for the Prophet as a fashion correspondent, but I wasn't exactly sure what she was doing now. The way she was talking, however, I figured that I would figure it out sooner or later. The words were streaming from her mouth like water from a spring.  
  
"Ron, you just don't know how good it is to see you after all these years! Harry gave me constant updates when I still worked at the Daily Prophet, but since I quit I just didn't know what had become of you. I've been working with Madame Malkin at her Robes for All Occasions store in Diagon Alley. The woman has taken a real liking to me, and I believe that sooner or later I'll be named as head of the new branch she is opening up at Notting Hill!" I hadn't been paying much attention to her soliloquy up until that, but now, she most definitely had my attention. "Of course it will be disguised as some horrid second rate clothing store that none of the richer folks of that area would DARE to walk into, but it will sell only the finest, most expensive robes. I've taken my hand to designing, and Madame says that I may be good enough one day to start actually making my own robes! Maybe when Madame kicks it, it'll become Madame Brown's robes. Of course I plan to be wed by." and that was when she lost me again. I thought for sure that this was a sign. Something had brought up Notting Hill in this conversation. Could Lavender be the one who wrote the letter to me? She did seem to like me somewhat at Hogwarts.unless of course I was just delusional as usual.  
  
The next person to walk up to me was far friendlier and welcome. Fred gave me a pat on the back as he wished me a happy birthday. Of the two twins, Fred was still the most like he was in Hogwarts. This one of my two twin brothers was most definitely the driving force behind the newer marketing lines at the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes Corporation, and his perpetual childlike attitude was rather fun to be around in my eyes, but it sometimes grew tiring. I looked across the garden and spotted his wife, Parvarti, chatting away with Lavender. Fred finally spoke. "Ron, George and I have a gift for you." He looked in my eyes with pride. This was the most serious I'd ever seen Fred.  
  
Following his lead, he took me over to a table where George and Padma were sitting feeding each other strawberries and cream. George looked up at our approach, smiled, and stood to give me a brotherly hug. He wished me a happy birthday as he took a package off the table and handed it to me. Looking at the two beaming twins quizzically, I tore open the shiny paper that, as it turned in the light, flashed "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes" and the "3W's Corporation" over and over. When I finally got to the box, opened it, and then tore open the envelope sitting in the tissue paper within the box, I gasped. Glaring back at me from the bleach white 3W's Corporation stationary was a sum of money. "W-what is this?" I stammered.  
  
George spoke up, smiling proudly. "That, my friend, is the amount of money you currently have."  
  
I starred at the number dumbly, and looked back up at him. "How? I can't accept this much money from you."  
  
Fred explained. "You aren't. We bought you stock in 3W's two years ago, and with our current boom in sales, that is how much the stock is worth now. We've made an almost 500% profit from our original purchase."  
  
I read the number out loud to make sure it was real. "Two million galleons, three hundred thousand sickles, thirty knuts." I read it in my head over and over, and then broke down and hugged my twin brothers. "Thank you so much! This is.amazing!"  
  
Padma was smiling, and her husband was beaming as he spoke. "We thought it was time you got the money. If you want, you can cash it in right now, and you will have all that money in your bank account at Gringotts immediately." I nodded, and George waved over an assistant with a magi-top who seemed to never be far from the twins, and George told him to transfer the money. I had just gone from having three hundred sickles to.being a Galleonaire!  
  
I watched the twins whisper to one another, laugh heartily, and then excuse themselves as they ran inside the Burrow. Before I turned around I caught sight of Charlie with an enormous smile on his face as he walked into the garden with Fleur Delacour on his arm. I shook my head, as I thought this was a bad idea. Bill was staring at the couple with knives in his eyes, and Ginny was doing almost the same thing. Fleur, who was a model like Ginny, was the Miss French contestant for the Miss World pageant. Bill was standing up, so I ran over to him quickly.  
  
"Bill! Are you enjoying the party?" He started to walk around me, but I grabbed him, and pulled him over to the buffet table. "Have you had mum's leeks? They're great!" I actually hated leeks.  
  
Bill finally looked at me. "What are you doing?"  
  
"I'm trying to keep you from killing your brother. Do it on another day, do not do it on my birthday." I grabbed his arm.  
  
He stared at me. "He has no right to strut around with her."  
  
I threw my hands up in the air with a scream of frustration. "You have no claim on her, Bill! I've been putting up with your moping attitude for weeks, and you need to get over it. Fleur doesn't want to be with you anymore. You guys, yes, shared two years of your life together, and for Fleur, I'm amazed. She is known to break men's hearts, and you should be happy for the times you shared together."  
  
He began to cry, and I lead him over to a chair and sat him down. "Ron, I know why she dumped me. I.asked her to marry me." He sobbed out at this, and a knelt down and rubbed his back. "She told me that she wasn't ready for that.so she said she needed time apart to think. She's using Charlie to make me jealous."  
  
I sighed. "Well, if that is what she's doing, then she is succeeding. Have you talked to her since you asked her?" He shook his head. "Then talk to her. You never know, she might have had time to think, or if not, maybe she'll want to get back with you. I can talk to Charlie for you, after you discuss things with Fleur, but please.don't do it tonight. I'd rather not have a fight and a dead brother on my birthday."  
  
He sobbed an "okay" and I left him to think things over. Ginny had caught the eye of an extremely handsome man, and was no longer concerned with the arrival of her rival. I sighed. Too many things were happening tonight.  
  
Turning around with a dumbfounded expression on my face, I tried to ponder more things, but several smiling witches I had never seen in my life accosted me, and I had the inkling that none of them were on the invite list. The first one, a tall blonde with never-ending legs, immediately walked up to me and screamed. "OMIGOSH, like, it is Ron Weasley! You are, like, the single hottest wizard in the world, and like, my hero!" I couldn't help but smirk at the air headed bimbo before me. That, however, turned out to be the wrong move, as she apparently took it for gratitude, or at most, an offer for full on shagging. She immediately began to cry, laugh, and a multitude of other things before promptly passing out on the grass at my feet. The other witches, her apparent friends, seized the opportunity to jump over their compádre's limp form and take their three seconds face time with me.  
  
Before I could be trapped for autographs, pictures, clippings of hair, wedding proposals, or semen samples, a tall witch stepped in front of me, and in a sharp, completely recognizable voice said, "The show is over ladies. I trust that you would take fair note in the feelings of poor Mr. Weasley in knowing that he is not in need of your unwanted affection. Miss Hadley, Miss Brooker, others.I trust that you will be off these premises before I decide to dock your former houses fifty points each for capturing a celebrity and trespassing. I'm sure that, even if you did graduate last year, your former classmates would seek you out and promptly return the favor of loosing them the house cup for certain." When Professor McGonagall had completed it seemed as if a light switch had been flicked, and the girls were suddenly gone. I caught a glimpse of them leaping over a high hedge and into a waiting wizarding cab (much like the Knight Bus, but on a smaller scale, without beds).  
  
I turned to Professor McGonagall and immediately thanked her for the help. It had been a very log time since last I had dealt with the affection of any girls. She smiled when she said, "It was no problem, my dear Mr. Weasley. It is welcome enough to see you out of your room, but I must confess that you look like a rabbit about to bolt back to his burrow." She said the last bit with sincere concern etched on her face.  
  
Standing there, with the woman before me, made all the urgings from earlier return. I now realized that something inside of me was telling me to unload on this woman, a very trusted friend and mentor, all the woes I had in the world. However, at the risk of killing her with my grief, I decided for a lighter version. I allowed her to read the letter, as we walked away from the crazy crowd and into a more secluded area of my yard.  
  
When she finished reading, she held the same dumbfounded and surprised expression on her face as Harry and Cho had earlier. I spoke up, "It has that affect on you, doesn't it?"  
  
She immediately turned to me and spoke out in a very sympathetic voice. "Oh Ron.if only this could be true. I feel awful for you. Whoever did this has to be completely heartless." She hugged me in a very sincere manner, something I had never once seen the normally strict Headmistress do.  
  
When she pulled away I reasoned. "But.what if it is true. Harry survived Avada Kedavra, maybe whatever saved him saved her as well.you cannot be certain...where was her body after the attack? She was the only person whose body wasn't found who was in the infirmary when the Death Eaters assaulted it." I said this with many unstated ifs, ands, and buts.  
  
"I just don't see how, Ron. No one knows how Harry survived, not even the boy himself, and no one to date has survived aside from him. The odds are against this letter ever being true. I hate to sound like the bearer of evil news, but as Snape showed you the night of the attack, there are spells that make bodies just.disappear." McGonagall said this as if she were secretly hoping that she was wrong, and that Hermione would turn up on my doorstep in a few days with that same smile and bushy hair and be the Hermione that I had loved always, but the later sentence of reply was etched with the mental images of the Death Eaters who had disintegrated into ash before my very eyes and just.blew away.  
  
Much love, yours forever and always, Hermione.  
  
"I cannot think of anyone who would hate me enough that they would do such a thing." I commented, scanning my memory once again.  
  
McGonagall turned to me and sighed. "I, as well, don't believe anyone could hate you this much, Ron. Not even Draco." I growled internally at the mention of that menace. He had all but disappeared from the face of the earth after graduation. I was certain that he had delved into the dark realms of the wizarding world and was now the equivalent to a mob boss, but the majority of the wizarding community believed that he was not evil at all, and had in fact fought against the Death Eaters, and his own father, during the war. I sighed at the thought, but no one had even seen Draco in more than a year, and I suppose it wasn't nice to think or wish that he were dead and gone from this world. No one knows where or what he is doing, but several million galleons disappeared from his personal bank account a week after his disappearance.  
  
Looking back I remember the trial of his father, Lucius, how he had been captured after the war and tried for crimes against humanity in using forbidden weapons and spells. As leader of the Death Eaters, Lucius was the one who suggested to Voldemort that they bring back the work of former dark wizards with devices like the Excon, Blaze, and Sorenson. These three terrible weapons alone caused the death of near to two million wizards and witches worldwide, with at least a fourth of them being from the United Kingdom and France, and Excon was also the cause of several thousand building destructions around the world. Reports of people still falling to the trap spell, Sorenson, were being reported, and the newly formed Department of Restoration was constantly searching to destroy the traps that remained. Lucius, during his trial, was asked if his son, Draco, had any part in the workings of Voldemort at all, and he had spat with defiance that he had "disowned" his son for being a traitor to his own family. I thought it was a cover up to protect his son, who soon after disappeared, but Lucious continued cursing his son's name all the way to Azkaban. To think that Draco had something to do with the letter was terrifying. Not only would it reaffirm the belief that he was still alive, but it would also prove that there was no good about him, as I always suspected.  
  
McGonagall was being called away by my dear mum. She waved to the red headed woman and said to me, "Ron, I would pray that that letter is true, but I ask you now not to get your hopes up. I would like to have a conference with Mad Eye and get back to you. He might know something, if anything, about this. Until then, however, I think it best if you didn't discuss this with anyone. Have you told any others?"  
  
I admitted to telling Harry and Cho, and she smiled. "I'm happy to see your friendship with Potter still runs deep. Make sure that he and Miss Chang are the only two that find out.it might even be a good idea to keep this secret from Molly as well." She was referring to my mother who had been spreading idle gossip all night. I'm sure everyone knew by now about Percy's stumbling into the Adult Wizarding Club and thinking it was a deli. Of course, that was the story her dear Percy told her. The rest of us knew the truth that he was doing his best to get over his loosing Penelope after all these years. I still don't know why they broke up, but she had shown up at the party with Marcus Flint (OF ALL PEOPLE) on her arm, and every time she looked in Percy's general direction she gave him a snooty look (as if she had any other kind). McGonagall waved goodbye to me and headed off towards my mum, who was chatting away to the Patil twins' mum and dad. I noticed that McGonagall wasn't the only witch called to the small congregation, and I soon learned why.  
  
I had gone to the buffet table to enjoy a glass of-hopefully-laced punch (that is if the twins were up to their usual caliber), when I heard someone clear their throat behind me. I turned to see Parvarti and Padma's mum standing there, twisting a small handkerchief in her hands. She stood there for a moment, beaming, and when I asked perplexedly, "Can I help you?" She dove onto me with a very big hug and started congratulating me. "What?" I questioned between breaths, as the woman hugged like a bear. She finally pulled away and beamed at me. "Congratulations on your job! I look forward to reading you!" She walked away, wiping tears of joy(?) from her eyes.  
  
Recovering, I turned around to fill a glass when someone tapped me on the shoulder. Two people, a man and a beaming woman I had never seen before in my entire life (later learned that he worked under my father in the Department of Muggle Affairs and that the beaming woman was his wife). I didn't even have to ask them what they needed before they started spouting about how "Seeing Ron Weasley's name in print alongside Harry Potter's would be a triumph for the Daily Prophet and surely push it above all other publications." As if it isn't already, I thought. They walked away, and I apparently had the same affect on that woman (still didn't get her name) as I did Parvarti and Padma's mother, Persephone Patil.  
  
I soon discovered, with the help of a very informative Ginny, that dear Molly Weasley had dropped Percy as the point of topic and had been spreading Harry's ploy to get me a job as sport's writer for the Daily Prophet.  
  
"How did she find out?" I asked Harry the first time I could get to him through the crowd surrounding him and the Quidditch star, Cho. Cho's fellow teammates on the Canon's team, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson- Wood, were sharing in the small fanfest taking place in the large back yard of the Burrow, and most of the party was waiting for autographs or pictures.  
  
Harry shrugged nonchalantly as he spoke over the sound of the guests turned fanatics. "I have no idea. You know your mother has more connections than a spider's web. Crikey, more than ARAGOG'S web!" He signed an autograph for Persephone. "Here you go Mrs. Patil." He handed it to her, and then immediately turned back to me. "I don't know what you are so worried about.you know you were going to take the job anyways, and now you won't have to break the news to anyone, just leave it to your dear mum."  
  
I nodded, but before I left I noticed Cho looking very sick indeed. I grabbed her hand and pulled her away from her two teammates, who held back the crowd. Pushing my way through the crowd, I helped her into the Burrow, and left Harry to handle the masses. I was amazed at how much he had grown to actually enjoy the people who stared at his scar or asked about his life. I suppose he knew deep inside that he brought hope to the people when there was none, and now that the threat of Voldemort was over, he guessed it didn't hurt people's gaiety to sign a few autographs. As Editor- in-Chief of the world renowned Daily Prophet he was also very much used to the limelight.  
  
Leading Cho into the bathroom, I allowed her to.do what she had to do, and then I took her up to Ginny's room to lie down. "But I don't need to rest," she whined like a seven year old.  
  
I pushed her onto the bed and commanded. "You look very sick, dear. I think it would be best if you slept for a while. Do it for me, and it can be your gift."  
  
She sat up. "But we got you a gift," she proclaimed indignantly. I pretended I didn't hear this, jokingly letting her know that I would take both gifts gladly, and then I left the room, putting out the lights with a quick spell.  
  
Deciding that it was once again time for another short break from all the activity going on outside, I sat down in the living room, took out the note, and began to analyze it more. After several minutes I had finally decided that it was indeed a forgery, but my thoughts were suddenly lost as Fred and George barged into the living room. "Get up, Ron! Your sitting on our new product!"  
  
I stood up, and the two promptly lifted the cushions from the couch I had been sitting on. Underneath were several dozen small, golden eggs. "What in the name of Albus?" I stared over the conglomeration that I had been sitting on seconds before.  
  
George looked up and explained. "These are our latest masterpieces. In our new line Back to Roots we've been exploring some of our best practical jokes from our Hogwarts years. Do you remember the Canary Creams?" He asked, and I nodded, allowing him to continue. "This is along the same lines. We call these eggs simply 'Goose of Gold'. Someone eats the chocolate filled morsels and immediately is turned into the goose that laid the golden egg. We also added a second spell, a glamour spell that makes anyone who SEES the goose that laid the golden egg want it. Our first victim was chased up and down Knockturn Alley for ten minutes before he turned back into his normal self and scared the old woman who had been chasing him half to death."  
  
They were laughing, but I was staring at them incredulously. "What were you two doing in Knockturn Alley? You aren't dealing in there again are you?" Fred and George had gotten into a lot of trouble with Ministry officials for dealing there. It wasn't a pretty picture seeing the officers from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement swooping in on the Burrow with a warrant for Fred and George's arrest two years ago. We had no idea that their lucrative business was being done without a license and in Knockturn Alley of all places! It wasn't against the law to deal there, but it was definitely frowned upon, and the Daily Prophet ran numerous articles, starting with a very humiliating front-page exposé on the incident. The twins spent a night in jail, were forced to pay a very hefty fine, and then actually get a license before they were allowed to set up their extremely popular shop again. All in all, their verbal pelting from mum was far worse than anything the Department could have done.  
  
The twins shook their heads earnestly. "No, no! We were visiting an old friend there, and she wanted to see our latest invention. She sure laughed a lot that day, didn't she, Fred?" George defended them.  
  
Fred smiled. "She sure did. I still don't understand how someone as smart as her puts up with us? Do you, Ron?"  
  
I gave them both looks as if they were insane. "I don't even know who you are talking about, but she apparently lives or works in Knockturn Alley, which means that she surely can't be very good company."  
  
Fred immediately jumped to the woman's defense. "Don't talk about Char like that! She has taught us almost everything we know about spells since our days at Hogwarts. She probably knows more about magic than anyone alive now. She especially knows a lot about dark curses, which is why she is afraid to set up shop in Diagon Alley. She is unofficially on a Ministry watch list, but she is good to the core."  
  
I stared at Fred. "Hold on a second. Char? As in Charlotte Grey? You guys are talking about the smartest person to ever graduate from Hogwarts?" Of course I left out the thought that Hermione would have topped her-if she had graduated.  
  
Fred and George smiled. "Of course we are. Charlotte has been one of our best friends since school days. She graduated two years ahead of us, but we've maintained contact." George explained.  
  
Maybe Char could help me with this. If she was what everyone had said she was, Charlotte might know exactly what everything means. Maybe she knows something that could stop Avada Kedavra, and whether or not Hermione contained that. If she were able to say that it was a forgery, perhaps she would be able to trace where it came from. For Merlin's sake.everything I'm basing this decision on is completely fallible. I looked at the twins.  
  
"Can I meet her?"  
  
Fred looked ecstatic. "Tomorrow!"  
  
******  
  
The final guests walked through the fireplace in a burst of green flame. Turning around, I smiled at Harry and Cho and continued the conversation we'd been having for the past few minutes. "Okay, so you two are going with the twins and me tomorrow, right?"  
  
Cho, who looked better from her rest, smiled. "Yes, of course. We want to know the truth behind that letter as much as you do. I can tell you now that Harry's journalistic bone is definitely intrigued at all this." She patted her boyfriend's leg playfully while giving him a look that said that she'd make up for the quip later.  
  
Harry laughed. "You know I cared as much about Hermione as you did, Ron. In a different way, yes, but I cared. Of course I want to know the truth, and I'll be by your side, as always, until we reach the end of this rope. I hope Hermione is at the end, but if she isn't, I'll still be there for you."  
  
I smiled. After all these years I was still amazed at the fact that Harry and I were still best friends. Looking back I realized that we never really had a major fight. Everything we argued over as kids was really trivial in the grand scheme of things, and mostly stemmed from my jealousy at his sheer magnificence. I soon realized, however, that just being Harry Potter's friend was enough to be famous, but by then, I had also realized that fame wasn't the most important thing in the world, and now, it doesn't matter to me at all. I look at Cho and how she has to put up with all those people all the time, and I think that I would die if I had to face that every day. It's good to know that I can crawl into my room and not be bothered by teeming masses or maddened crowds.  
  
Cho was looking over the letter again, which by now was torn in several places from all the handling, and made her own decision. "I've seen Hermione's writing, in letters and whatnot to Harry, and this is definitely her writing. It's almost too perfect to be a forgery. Not even magic can make this perfect a copy." She wasn't saying anything I didn't know already, but hearing someone say it out loud only affirmed my beliefs.  
  
I suddenly remembered something. "The ink was still wet when it was delivered. I remember Hermione always wrote her letters on thick parchment that sucked up ink like a sponge. You see the smear under her name? I rubbed my finger across that. The letter was written today." I didn't know if that was important, but if it was indeed from Hermione it would mean that as the letter landed at my table, Hermione was stepping out of her door and walking along the magical streets of Notting Hill. It was an encouraging thought if nothing else, but also one full of questions. Once again I was asking myself about the validity of Hermione's death. If she had indeed died, this would all be a very painful hoax, but if she hadn't been dealt with that final card it would mean that she had been hiding from me all this time, or couldn't get to me for some reason. Why?  
  
Everything was too much to take in, and I soon found myself standing up to go to bed. Mum had asked Harry and Cho to spend the night, as they were practically family anyway, and they had agreed as it was already well into the day after my birthday.  
  
Harry, Cho, and I walked up the stairs, Harry giving Cho a kiss at Ginny's landing. She walked into Ginny's room and the two immediately began to talk about all the fashions of the day, but their conversation was soon cut out as the door closed. Mum wouldn't allow the Harry and Cho to share a room under her roof, not that they would ever request to do so. Walking the rest of the way up the stairs, we finally reached my room and entered in to its orange glow.  
  
We both changed into our sleeping clothes, and settled down in the dark room. Glancing at my watch I groaned at the time, 3:30. That meant I was going to get about five hours sleep before I had to be up in the morning. Fred and George were introducing me to Char tomorrow morning.  
  
Harry spoke to me through the darkness. "It's been a long day hasn't it?"  
  
I smiled. "Yea, it has. It feels good to be out there again. Thanks."  
  
"For what?"  
  
I couldn't see his face, so I spoke to the ceiling. "If it hadn't been for your urgings, I wouldn't have gotten out there. I'd still be cooped up in my room with Pigwidgeon and Astarael my only comfort. The life I was leading was not what Hermione would have wished, but now that I'm out, I'm faced with this letter. What can it all mean?"  
  
Harry sighed. "I don't know, either, Ron. If Hermione is alive, we'll find her." He stopped for a moment, and then broached a different subject. "I have to return to work the day after tomorrow, are you ready to join me?"  
  
I thought for a moment. "Yes, I think I am. I'm ready to start living again, Harry. I'll start work, move into a new apartment in London, and start dealing with daily life. Once this whole Hermione thing is over with, I'll be able to put the past out of mind forever. I'm ready."  
  
We laid in silence, and I soon heard Harry's heavy breathing drifting through the air. Listening well I could also hear the twittering breath of Pigwidgeon in his cage in the corner, and Astarael's soft hooting as she slept from her journey on her roost. Thinking about my large Great Horned Owl, I thought about the package I had sent to the Granger's. It wasn't much, just a few items that I had left over from my years at Hogwarts with Hermione. I sent them things like a picture of her at the Yule Ball during our fourth year, when the entire world saw what a gorgeous women she really was, a story she had written and not shown anyone else, but I saw in that small bit of prose that she could have been a famous author if she wanted, and a few pieces of her wand, which had been shattered when she had fought against the attackers in the infirmary.it was all that was found of her. Now, would I be able to give them their daughter as well? Would I be able to knock on the door of their large home, with their own daughter in my arm, showing the world once and for all that they were wrong, that Hermione had indeed not been killed that night? Yawning, I decided that that was a problem that would have to wait for tomorrow.  
  
Rolling over, I closed my eyes, and felt sleep immediately take over. I just barely heard a hoot from Pigwidgeon before I fell asleep, but I shrugged it off.the hyperactive owl was probably dreaming hyper too.  
  
******  
  
I woke in the morning to the sound of a loud indignant hooting. Rolling over, I opened up one eye and spied Astarael staring into the now open cage that had once contained Pigwidgeon. The poor owl looked worried that its companion of three years was missing. Groaning, I got out of bed, closed the cage door, and noticed that the window, which had been open the night before, sported a thin tare through the screen.  
  
Shrugging it off, as it wasn't the first time Pig had disappeared, I looked at my watch which blared 8:00, and I rubbed my eyes of the sleep of which I hadn't gotten enough. I changed into some jeans and a shirt, and headed downstairs in search of Harry. I got half way down the long, winding steps when I heard Cho's laughter echoing from the kitchen. Rushing in there, I was greeted by the sight of a small family get together.  
  
Fred and George, who had stopped by to pick up the rest of the Goose of Gold and take us all to Knockturn Alley, were sharing a cup of tea with my mum and dad and Cho. The two were wearing business robes. Saying hello to everyone, I walked over to the coffee pot and poured myself a mug of steaming hazelnut coffee. Of all the Weasleys, I was the only one who enjoyed waking up to coffee rather than tea in the morning, but mum still took the time to make some for me everyday. Taking a sip, I breathed in the warm aroma, and then asked where my best friend was. Cho was laughing at a joke of Fred's, but answered me. "He's taking a bath upstairs."  
  
The conversation continued, and I just listened. The laughter was the thing I missed the most, and I was doing my best to catch up for lost time. Fred was explaining to Cho the Canary Cream scheme of the Hogwarts days, and about the Goose of Gold. She was laughing deeply when Harry walked in wearing casual robes and kissed her on the top of the head. He was about to get his coffee when he suddenly cried. "Oh, I left my wand upstairs." He turned around to leave, and I followed him out so I could change and get ready to leave. Fred had mentioned that Charlotte was expecting them at 9:30. We got into my room, and I quickly changed into robes similar to Harry's, and with his wand in hand, we headed back downstairs.  
  
By the time we got downstairs, Fred, George, and Cho were standing at the door, ready to go. Cho was putting a cloak on over her casual turquoise robes, and she looked much better then she had the night before. I grabbed my own coat. For it being the second day of March, it was still very cold and London was expecting snow later in the day, and if we were in Knockturn for too long, I didn't want to be caught in a snow storm without some protection from the elements.  
  
Everyone was ready to go, and we were heading out the door when Cho commanded. "Harry, get your coat."  
  
Harry looked at her indignantly. "I'm not cold, I don't need a coat."  
  
Cho starred at him. "Harry, I said to get your coat."  
  
He grumbled, and grabbed his coat off the rack as Fred and George mumbled just so I could hear. "Man, is he whipped." They laughed.  
  
Harry's plaintiff voice rang out. "Well, can I at least get a cup of tea before we leave?"  
  
Cho shrugged. "I don't care, I'm not your boss." She turned to go outside and wait as Harry looked at her as if she were crazy, and quickly grabbed a thermos of tea.  
  
He walked out the door right before me mumbling. "I am in love with a crazy woman."  
  
I chuckled as I walked out, closing the door behind me. I don't know why the twins hadn't wanted us to use the Dragon's Corporation Tele-Floo network. It was extremely quick, and much easier then the old Floo network of fireplaces. Using Floo powder (and much less than the original) the Tele-Floo network took up less room also. It could be installed in a closet, or in the fireplaces, replacing the old network. The Dragon's Corporation had only developed the network in the last year, and only a few homes had it installed (the Weasley's now being one of the wealthiest wizarding families in Britain was one of the first to install it) which might be why we were using a different mode of travel. Perhaps Char didn't have the network installed at her home.  
  
My questions were answered as soon as I saw what was hovering in our front yard. "You own a MultiBroom?!" I stared at the conglomeration with wide- eyed disbelief. Another product of the Dragon's Corporation, a company that had started soon after the end of the war three years ago, the MultiBroom, or the SUB (Sports Utility Broom) was their latest invention. It actually wasn't out on the market yet, which is why I was amazed that my brother's owned one. It was basically several brooms linked together with a very powerful spell that couldn't be broken. The brooms were in an upside down "V" shaped flying pattern-like that of a gaggle of geese's flying pattern-where the point broom controlled the flying. All of the brooms were then encased in a large bubble that had air conditioning spells, heating spells, and even a wiring to the Wizard's Radio. The Dragon's Corporation had also announced that when the Wizard's Web was released, the web would be connected to the bubble for video, music, navigation, and other functions.  
  
"Actually," Fred explained. "We each own one."  
  
I stared at them open mouthed. The two were possibly the wealthiest businessmen in the wizarding world, aside from the mysterious owner of the Dragon's Corporation, and were rumored to be up for the next opening position in the ruling council of the wizarding corporate city, Camelotopolis, which was called the Knights of the Round. Money was no object for them, but one SUB was ten thousand Galleons, which was an enormous amount of money.  
  
The twins' private driver was waiting in the lawn, and we all selected our own broom. Each had a charm that made it feel as if you were sitting in a large cushy chair (or what Muggles call "bucket seats" in their cars); so all rides were extremely comfortable. When the four of us were seated, the driver took the point broom of the five and took out his wand, saying the charm to encase the brooms in the bubble. The sounds of the Wizard's Radio immediately came to our ears, and warm heat permeated every inch of the bubble almost immediately.  
  
Cho smiled. "Now this is riding in style!" Fred and George laughed, but didn't comment.  
  
I sat back as the driver incased the bubble in a cloaking spell so that the Muggle occupants of Ottery St. Catchpole wouldn't see five wizards flying away from "the strange Weasley" household. We enjoyed some minor chitchat about yesterday's party and the upcoming British and Irish League championship, as well as the European Cup, which Cho was hoping to win.  
  
She was talking about the Chudley Cannon's players. "Well, Alicia and Angela are about the best chaser's in European today, but we wish we could have gotten Oliver as our Keeper, but the Montrose Magpies still have him under contract. We are also haggling with Katie Bell's manager to get her on for next year.you know, have the Gryffindor trio back together again. If we win the British/Irish League we will be favored for the European cup, but Puddlemere United, our first round opponent, are pretty good this year. I just don't know. I wish we could talk you into taking up your broom again, Harry. I'd gladly relinquish my seeker position and work as second string if you decided to start playing again." She gave Harry a meaningful look, as if they'd had the conversation several times before, but he pretended he didn't hear, or really didn't hear as he seemed to be sitting next to one of the bubble's "speakers" where the Weird Sisters were belting their newest single "Snog a Werewolf."  
  
I saved Harry from answering, in any case, and assured her. "Cho, you are the best seeker in Chudley's history! You and Alicia and Angela are the reason that the fans have readopted the old motto of 'We Shall Conquer'. I would be surprised if you didn't win the European Cup this year, truly surprised."  
  
Cho smiled, and at that moment we entered the Flyway. The network was an extremely amazing structure. It had taken three years to get London and most of the rest of Britain connected to routes. We were currently on the Grand Dumbledore Highway, the main thoroughfare running from Southampton to London, and on up to the northern coast. Current construction was going on to connect what there was of the French network to the Dumbledore Highway, which one day would become the single most traveled flyway in the world, traveling from Moscow to London, and possibly one day to Tokyo (if the Asian Ministry of Magic would agree to Europe's terms). The flyways were actually large, clear square shaped structures that were invisible to people on the ground. They were protected by hundreds of anti-Muggle charms to keep planes from flying into the structures. Everyone traveled the structures, except for a select few who thought that corporations were taking over the Wizarding world. Each branch of the Flyway had a set speed limit and Mounted Police monitored every turn off and main thoroughfare. Dumbledore's limit was 125kmph, but I was sure our driver had to be going 175 or 200, and the other traffic, which seemed to be very heavy, was zooming by.  
  
Suddenly the SUB jerked to the side and onto the Merlin Access ramp that led down to the Greater London turn off. It was morning rush hour. Glancing at my clock I noticed that it was 9:15, the later part of rush hour that was reserved for mostly wealthy business owners who didn't have to be in as early as the blue-collar workers of the wizarding world. I happened to glance over at Harry just in time to see him reach up and touch his scar. That was a half second before an explosion rocked the tunnel half a km in front of us at the turn off to Greater London.  
  
.to be continued in Chapter 4 A Sorceress of Grey  
  
Dedicated To: This Chapter is dedicated to my marvelous Beta team (Jenny and Glitzy) and also to all of the readers out there who enjoy what I've done so far, I hope I don't disappoint you with this Chapter!  
  
A/N: Will Ron ever discover if Charlotte will be able to help? It is yet to be seen as tragedy strikes the Flyway. In the next chapter, expect multiple surprises, a meeting with the enigma of Charlotte Grey, and possible answers about the letter from Hermione. On a wider front, find out exactly what has happened in the flyway, and what it may mean to the wizarding world as it is. Destructive plots, lost love, and wondering Angels.see what is in store in the next chapter to the saga of The Simplest of Emotions.  
  
Sources: In this Chapter I used an element from my favorite HP Fanfic writer, AngieJ.the Flyway. With her express permission of course. Thank you AngieJ, and keep up the amazing work! You all can read her amazing Paradise stories at . The first one is Trouble in Paradise.  
  
**And now Reviewers club from Chapter 2. Remember, be a responsible reader and review! Click on the above "review" button.or e-mail the author at uy_lance@hotmail.com Subject Line: REVIEW! All reviews are very much appreciated, and it also helps to know what is working with the fic, and what isn't ;)**  
  
In order of post.from earliest to most recent.  
  
Victoria Anne-Thanks so much for the review! Continue reading, and I promise I'll return to the common room as soon as things settle down!  
  
Twinkle-You get the award for the most flattering review ;) Thank you so much.in the words of Dumbledore "I haven't blushed so much since Madame Pomfrey said she liked my new earmuffs."  
  
Bluebutterfly-Thanks for the review.I know I might have dodged the whole "What's up with Hermione" in this Chapter, but expect a complete and utter update on that issue in the next chapter! Also, I didn't work any flashbacks into this one, but you'll be treated to a charming TWO in the next chapter! (Maybe they won't focus as much on the relationship, those will come later, but you will get to hear all about the invasion of the Death Eaters on Hogwarts!) Thanks for the review, and keep reading and reviewing!  
  
SweetDreamer-Hey Nikki! You get the award for the most begging review (you know I love you!) I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long on Chapter 3.been so busy lately. Now, you'll have to wait a bit for Chapter 4 as well.it's much longer than the other chapters (It'll be around 30-40 pages) so it'll take a bit of time to complete, but I'm sure you'll enjoy! I hope it isn't TOO much! Thanks for the review, luv!  
  
Aless02-You shouldn't be spouting to everyone that you've read this Chapter already.they may get jealous! Thanks for the Colorado pics, and thanks for another great review!  
  
MysticPenguin-Oooo...I hope you didn't mind this cliffhanger.or the next (as Chapter 4 will end in one as well) I suppose you'll get used to them after a while, it's just how a write ;) (I have to have you coming back for more don't I ;)) Thanks for your continued support, and I can't wait for your review of Chapter 3!  
  
Ainadilwen-You get the LOTR fan of the chapter award! Luff LOTR, and glad to see you drawing parallels to it from my story! If you liked the mention of Snape, just wait.I'm expecting to have him play a large role at a later date! Glad to help you out with the American Phraseology.can't wait till your next review!  
  
SJO-Oh.if you can't imagine this life.just wait ;) Many surprises will abound, and you'll see canon characters acting in VERY uncanon ways soon ;). I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!  
  
Arriah-Love your name! Mind if I use it in my fic? LOL.(you too Ainadilwen).If you didn't see this stuff coming, just wait, more uncanon things to come.I hope that doesn't disappoint any of you.  
  
THANKS TO ALL MY REVIEWERS FROM FANFICTION.NET.SORRY I COULDN'T GET YOU UP THIS CHAPTER, BLOODY COMPUTER NOT ALLOWING ME TO ACCESS THE SIGHT TODAY.I'LL GET TO YOU NEXT TIME, PROMISE!! IN THE MEANTIME, CONTINUE READING.AND PLEASE ENJOY YOUR DAILY DOSE OF The Simplest of Emotions! 


	4. A Sorceress of Grey

The Simplest of Emotions  
  
By: Lance Walker  
Chapter 4  
  
A Sorceress of Grey  
  
**STORY NOTE** In the first chapter, I mentioned that it has been "five years since the hell began and ended." For those of you who are joining me now for the fourth Chapter in Ron's story, I would like to make clear that I am editing that. The luxury of making sure a whole book is chronologically correct is lost when you post something chapter by chapter; so let it be known that the correct timeline is as follows. The war begins in Ron's Fifth year (1995-1996). In that same year, according to my fic, Voldemort is killed, but the war continues as the various evil sects are hunted by Aurors. The minions of the king of evil did not flee and scatter as they did at the end of VW1 that occurred after Voldemort's attack on Harry's parents. As the war continues, Hogwarts school goes on, without Albus Dumbledore. Ron and Harry graduate in 1998, and the war officially ends that same year, and the Dumbledorian Concord is established. So, for a quick "sum it all up"-The war lasted for all of Ron's Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh year's at Hogwarts.a full three years. Soon after the graduation of Ron and Harry, the war ends, and the world declares a peace. Three years later, this story begins in the year 2001. Reminder: this is the last time this story note will appear**  
  
**Warning: I can foresee this becoming a standard disclaimer. This Chapter is much longer than the previous three chapters. It was 42 pages on my word file, so if you don't like long chapters, feel free to copy and paste it to a word file so you don't have to read it all in one sitting. My story is somewhat dictated by a general outline of points I want to hit in each chapter. Chapter 4 had 18, while chapter 3 only had 10. I hit other things in the chapters, but those are the major points that are imperative to the story. Chapter 5 has 20 right now, but as I rethink story line, it may be cut down some. Also, more points doesn't necessarily mean longer.depends how much stuff I put between points. This is where the story begins to take a darker turn. If you have a set thought pattern of how this story is to play out, please, approach it from now on with the attitude of never knowing what will happen next. If you have a set thought on how canon characters should act, either approach this knowing that they will begin to act in very uncanon ways, or stop reading with my thanks for reading chapters 1-3. As always I'm available at my e-mail address (uy_lance@hotmail.com) for any compliments, suggestions, or verbal thrashings, if you feel the need to communicate with me, you can there. It is also my MSN, and my AIM screen name is LanceTB17. Thank you, and remember.you've been warned.now, finally, to Chapter 4, A Sorceress of Grey**  
  
I happened to glance over at Harry just in time to see him reach up and touch his scar. That was a half second before an explosion rocked the tunnel half a kilometer in front of us at the turn off to London.  
  
I blinked, saw the smoke billowing from a fissure where the explosion happened, and blinked again. Brooms were scattered about like a house of cards that had not survived a gust of wind. The broom riders were also everywhere. I looked at Harry, who cursed, and immediately apparated out of the SUB and onto the floor of the flyway where he started running towards the site of the explosion. I immediately joined him, as did Cho, Fred, and George.  
  
The wind in the Flyway was rushing by at a speed that caused my ponytail to whip behind me in, if I had been in a movie, a very dramatic manner. My robes were billowing out behind me, as were everyone else's. The acrid smell of the burning materials at the site of the explosion had begun to blow in our direction, and the scent was almost unbearable. I tore off a strip of my cloak and wrapped it around my head to protect my nose from the stench. I tried to turn away from the sight of wrecked brooms that scattered the floor of the immense structure.  
  
Harry reached the hole before us, and immediately pointed his wand at the smoking, gaping hole and shouted. "Vis Ager!" I had never heard of the spell, and was amazed to see a shimmering blue web-like material shoot out of his wand, and spread over the hole. The rushing wind immediately stopped, as did the smoke, which began to roll up the outside of the web and into the open air above the Flyway.  
  
Cho, who had worked tirelessly in the infirmaries during the war, immediately began to attend to the hundreds of injured wizards and witches around the hole. I helped her as Fred and George teamed up elsewhere in the Flyway, aiding those that they could. Harry was going around to as many wizards and witches as he could, saying a spell over them. A silver light engulfed those he spelled, and they immediately disappeared. I knew immediately that he was using their own innate magical abilities to apparate them to the closest wizard hospital.  
  
I heard the sound of siren's blaring and echoing around the Flyway's walls, and I looked up in time to see the blue and red flashing lights of the Mounted police heading in our direction. Soon after them, mediwizard ambubrooms were speeding in our direction. I took a moment to stand and gape at the sight before me. I knew instinctively that only one device could cause this much destruction. Of the three forbidden devices used continually during VW2, Excon destroyed buildings, Sorenson caught wizards and witches in horrendous, deadly traps, but Blaze was the most deadly. It was the binding of a Muggle named Nobel's dynamite technology, and the spells of wizards and witches bent on destruction.  
  
The first Blaze was used during the Grindelwald Wars (World War II in the Muggle world-Hitler and Grindelwald had joined together during the war.). Grindelwald himself developed the Blaze after learning about the Muggle gunpowder and dynamite. He had found an ancient tome from the times of the great Magi Wars (wars that coincided with the Muggle Crusades) that talked about a spell of destruction called Ignis Magnus-now, a forbidden spell- which caused an enormous ball of fire to incinerate whatever the caster pointed it to.  
  
Grindelwald took that ancient spell, and put it inside a grenade or stick of dynamite and gave it a trigger spell. When the explosive was set or thrown, the wizard had only to point his wand at the explosive and set it off with the spell Obitus, or death. Not only did the spell cause an explosive ball of fire, it caused even deadlier shrapnel to fly in all directions. It destroyed buildings and people alike, and it was no respecter of persons. Muggles and wizards of all walks of life had died at the hands of a Blaze. And someone had used the forbidden device here, and at exactly the right time to cause the most destruction. It was no telling how many important wizards to the corporate wizarding world had died in the explosion.  
  
The police were pushing Cho, Fred, George, and me back. We were being treated for the minor cuts that we had received from flying shrapnel that we hadn't even realized we'd received. I was looking over the destruction once more when a light suddenly flashed, and then another, and another. I looked at the source and I saw a cameraman walking around taking pictures of the gaping hole, still covered by Harry's "force field", the wreckage of brooms, and the melted and bent pieces of what had once been a portion of the Flyway.  
  
I recognized the wizard's credentials as being from the Daily Prophet. He himself had probably been around when the explosion had first occurred, no one in the world would know about this yet. Harry saw the cameraman, one of his own, and immediately walked over to him. His voice echoed and carried over the crackling sound of fires in the tunnel. "What the hell are you doing, Colin?"  
  
Colin Creevy looked up at his boss. "Um.I'm.getting pictures f-for tomorrow's edition of the Prophet."  
  
Harry grabbed his camera. "Take some pity for Albus's sake! These people are dead, and all you can think about is a bloody story?!"  
  
Unlike Harry, I had no problem believing that Colin was only concerned with the story. By being the first to break it to the world, he would most likely be a favorite for this years Quill News Awards, as he'd already won five of those-the only person to win more was Harry himself, who had won six for reporting and two for editing. Colin had gone through a state of desensitization after covering the extremely bloody, extremely short Centaur War the year before. The Centaur League of Europe had decided to form an alliance with the multiple European Ministries, but the few rogue sects of centaurs who wanted to stay out of the affairs of the wizards decided to fight. The Centaur League put down the rebellion in ten hours, after in one battle they killed every fighter on the other side. Centaurs, a usually peaceful people, could fight with a will when they had to, and it was a general law that nobody on the loosing side could be left alive. "He who fights and loses should not live to fight and loose another day." This was the philosophy of Chiron, a Greek centaur who had trained heroes such as Hercules.  
  
Colin stared at his boss before grabbing the camera and biting back. "You should know better than anyone, Harry. The story is important. We help people by telling them what is going on. You can help all the damn people here you want, but I will tell those wizards and witches of the world about an event that could affect them, and probably will affect them in the future. I just heard through my grapevine that the Reapers of Light are claiming responsibility for this attack. THE REAPERS OF LIGHT, Harry!" He continued to curse them.Creevy's family, Muggles, were killed in an anti- Muggle attack by that terrorist group.only his brother Dennis, a wizard, was still alive. I was amazed at the fire at which he spoke. Colin had always been rather nervous around Harry, his hero, and for him to speak up in this manner was shocking.  
  
Harry turned around and looked back over the carnage. He had fought a written battle against the terrowizards for two years, and now, they had struck. The English Ministry, as well as the Ministries in France, Spain, and Germany, had thought they had eradicated the ancient sect of pureblooded wizards who thought that the world should be reserved for the higher evolution of humans-wizards-and had killed countless Muggles and Muggle-born wizards throughout the ages. They had even been credited with the ancient destruction of the great wizard city Atlantis by using the Excon, the device that their wizards had developed.  
  
Cho walked up, grabbed Harry's hand, and put her head on his shoulder. Colin didn't ask his boss for any directions, but turned and started to take more pictures, and search out the survivors who were being cared for by the parawizards. Cho spoke up. "Let's go, love. I want to get home and sleep."  
  
Harry turned to her, gave her a long kiss, and agreed with her. We immediately went back to the SUB, got in, and took off. Flying away from the destruction, I couldn't help but watch as the broken and bent remains of brooms and the Flyway grew farther and farther away. I finally tore my vision away, and sighed. My second day in the wizard world, and already I was seeing things that hadn't been seen for three years. With the Reapers of Light back in their deadly business, who knew what it could mean.  
  
We turned onto the Grand Dumbledore Highway, and went on to the next exit to London, which would take us to Kensington, rather than the central London exit we had been going to originally. It wasn't too far, and definitely not an inconvenience considering, and we gladly took that pathway. I soon found myself staring out across the neighborhood of South Kensington, which was very close to Notting Hill. Glancing up, I could just make out the Flyway, and the hole with the web force field over it, before we flew below the prescribed range, and it vanished from sight.  
  
The broom shot over the rooftops, a cloaking spell covering it from spying eyes, and we soon landed in Harry and Cho's backyard. Fred and George sighed. "We need to go take care of a few things. I'll send an owl to Charlotte to let her know that we aren't going to be able to make it." Fred explained.  
  
Harry then asked him. "What about later this afternoon?"  
  
George thought for a second. "Yes, 4:00?"  
  
I nodded, and the two got back in the SUB, and flew off, heading to Camelotopolis to analyze how this attack would affect their stock and revenue. I followed them with my eyes until they turned the cloaking spell on, and then walked inside after Harry and Cho. Cho took a seat in the living room, kicking her feet up on a footrest. I took a moment to stop and give Crookshanks a rub down. I picked the cat up, and held him close. After Hermione's death, the cat had had no place to live, and I couldn't handle seeing him every day. Harry gladly took the cat under his wing, saying that it gave him a good reminder of his best friend. He took comfort in something that gave me pain, as everything that reminded me of Hermione did. Harry and I were two different people, but I was glad that we were friends. Crookshanks purred. He hadn't seen me in a very long time. The last time I had left my room and visited Harry's house, practically the only other place in the world I would go if I left my room, was a year ago.  
  
I sat down in a nice velvet cushioned chair next to the recliner in which Cho was reclining. Harry was pacing. "Why don't you rest, dear? I'll get you something to drink." Cho spoke to her husband. She and Harry, both adamant against using House Elves, lived in a very large house on a small road named Devonshire Terrace. It was near Notting Hill, and I couldn't but feel my blood pounding at the thought that I could be very close to Hermione-if only she could be alive. Both of them made a salary that would make any self respecting wizard gawk, and together were two of the wealthiest wizards in England.  
  
Harry stopped in his pacing. "I can't Cho. You know I have to go."  
  
Cho stared at him, and then attempted to reason. "No you don't, love. They can do this without you."  
  
Harry moved over and sat across from her on a couch. "Without me? I'm the Editor-In-Chief! I have to be there. This story is going to be the biggest thing in years. I can't just sit here and let it happen without me."  
  
She sighed. Apparently they had been through this before, as it seemed as if they were both following a well laid out script that she had possibly won sometimes, but not this time. She stood up. "Well, if you are going, I might as well go with you."  
  
Harry looked at me. "If you want to come with you can, but if you don't want to spend your afternoon in a bustling newsroom, that's fine, too. We can apparate by and pick you up before we all head to Knockturn this afternoon."  
  
I nodded. I had rejoined the world, and in just a short while I would have to work at the Daily Prophet anyways. I decided to join them. We immediately apparated to the new HQ of the Daily Prophet in Camelotopolis.  
  
******  
  
We arrived at the front door of the three-story building in the bustling wizard city of Camelotopolis. Its exact location was somewhere in England. The immense city, after years of growing, had begun to build out over the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Muggles saw the city as a privately owned, no trespassing allowed, castle ruins on the coast. With all the spells and safe guards placed on the city, no Muggle would even look twice at the land. The city, the largest completely wizard city in the world, stretched ten miles along the western coastline of England, and at least twelve miles out onto the water.  
  
The lights of the city shone 24 hours a day, and were comparable to the Muggles' New York City, or "the City that never sleeps." Every major wizarding corporation had a base in Camelotopolis. The 3W's Corporation headquarters were here, as were the Dragon's Corporation. The English Ministry had relocated here after the war, as Camelotopolis was the safest city in the world, protected by an all Auror force called the Knight Riders. They zoomed around the city on brooms on constant patrols.  
  
The building that the Daily Prophet was housed in was small in comparison to the towering buildings around us. I could see the Dragon's Corporation building on the skyline, the top of the 100-story building curving up and around to form the neck and head of a dragon. A copy of London's Big Ben blazed the time for all of the inhabitants of the enormous city to see, and stood next to a mock of the Eiffel tower, which was actually the French Ministry's embassy.  
  
I marveled at all the people walking by and those flying above our heads in well-ordered lines of brooms. Cho touched my arm, and I turned to look at her. "Let's get inside. These freezing temperatures will give you a cold." I suddenly actually thought about the cold, and pulled my coat closer around me. I felt the first signs of snow land on the top of my nose, and I could just make out the small flurry taking place around me.  
  
We walked inside the building. I looked around and noticed that we were in an entry room. A desk was setup against the far wall where a woman sporting a beehive hair cut and cat framed glasses was scribbling away with quill and parchment. We walked up, and by her desk, and she looked up in time to speak. "Oh Mr. Potter! I thought you weren't going ta be in until Monday." She spoke as if she were from Brooklyn. I later found out that she was in fact an American witch, a journalist for the Wizard's Herald out of New York, a sister paper to the Prophet, and this woman acted as correspondent for both papers. She was working the reception desk for the extra cash.  
  
Harry stopped for just a moment. "Well, Blanch, with the recent developments, I thought it best if I were here."  
  
She looked at him as if nothing had happened in the wizarding world, and I realized that she didn't know yet. Of course, as soon as we walked through the door and out to the main newsroom floor, I was amazed she didn't. The top of the tall room had windows where thousands of owls were flying in every second, depositing mail in several large baskets that said "In" or onto people's personal desks. A hundred witches and wizards were yelling to one another, or into telephone receivers (the wizarding world had finally installed the telephone system a few years back) about the recent events.  
  
As soon as people began to realize that Harry was there, he was asked a million questions. One person walked up with a copy of the proposed front page for the morning edition. He held it up for Harry to critique.  
  
Disaster Hits Wizard World: Blaze Used on Flyway Stunned survivors recount their horrific ordeal  
  
Harry put his seal of approval on it, not immediately thinking of anything better to print. He was approached a score more times before finally arriving in his private office, where the inbox was full to overflowing. He closed the door behind us, and immediately went to work at his desk writing the article to match the front-page headline.  
  
He finally explained after several minutes of silence. "I was there, and everyone knows me as a notorious despiser of terrowizards, so there is no one better to write this article than myself."  
  
Cho and I nodded, and he continued writing as we sat in silence. Even though I tried, I couldn't help but shake the images from the Flyway. If the Reapers of Light were indeed back in business, it would mean things like that could be a daily occurrence, as they were during the first and second Voldemort Wars.  
  
The Reapers, a group as old as the notion of "Pureblood" and "Mudblood", had vowed to cleanse the world of all the Muggles who had polluted the wizarding population over the years. Not only did they think, as Voldemort, that those of Muggle birth should die, they believed that all Muggles should be either subjugated or eradicated.  
  
During the classical periods in Greece, when the world of the wizards and muggles were meshed together in harmony, the city of Atlantis thrived as a center where those of Muggle and those of wizard birth could live together in harmony. The city, built on a chain of circular islands, was the largest in the world at the time, and the most advanced.  
  
The Reapers of Light, who despised the mere notion that Muggles could live side by side with wizards as equals, when they believed that we were a higher order created to rule, decided to make a symbol out of Atlantis. Their wizards, with nothing but pure malice in their hearts, developed the Excon. Using every spell for earth shaking, earth crumbling, and building destruction known to the wizarding community at the time, the wizards of the Reapers, led by their leader at the time, Excon Aurelias, developed his namesake, and pointed it at its first target, the unsuspecting city of Atlantis.  
  
The history books say that Atlantis shook for four days and nights before it finally succumbed to the ocean. Four days and nights of being assaulted by spells that rocked the earth, destroyed the earth, and disintegrated buildings left and right. I can only imagine what kind of horror those poor wizards and Muggles went through.  
  
The thing that bothered me most about the attack, however, was that the Reapers were claiming responsibility. I had read almost every book on terrorist wizard sects of the world at that point in my life-apparently having a best friend obsessed with the matter didn't help. I read every single book Harry Potter put in my hands, and I would say that after him, I was the authority on terrowizard organizations in the world. The Reapers of Light, one of the most widespread, powerful, and oldest organizations, worked mainly in mainland Europe and Western Asia. Even during the first and second Voldemort Wars, the sect, who had joined up with the evil leader, as they shared the same goal in eradicating the "Mudblood" chain from the wizarding world, had mainly concentrated its efforts on France, Spain, Germany, and countries in that area. England had been reserved for another clan under Voldemort, other than the Death Eaters, who went by the name Brothers of Stygia. They never left the island nations of Britain and Ireland, and usually bowed to the rule over the main lands to the Reapers. So why would the Reapers be attacking a London Flyway, turf of the Brothers?  
  
I happened to glance up in time to see Colin Creevey walk in the room without so much as a knock. Harry sat back in his large, high-backed chair and stared at his head reporter. Colin had a stack of pictures in his hand, as well as the promised "survivors recounting their horrific ordeal" interviews.  
  
The reporter seemed to be back in his old nervous shoes around Harry. "Uh..s-sir? Th-these are the pictures from earlier. I w-wanted you to look over them be-before I sent them to la-layout." Colin walked around Harry's immense desk, stumbled up on his own feet, and almost dropped the load of pictures-probably close to thirty-all over the carpeted floor of Harry's office. He caught himself just in time, and put the stack down on Harry's desk.  
  
Harry was still starring at Colin, apparently trying to read him. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Harry sat up in his chair, grabbed the stack, and started flipping through them. As he came to certain pictures, he would expertly flick them out of the stack and onto a neat pile on his desk, those were the "in" pictures.  
  
A thoughtful "hmmm" would escape Harry's lips, but he wasn't giving anything else for us. I couldn't read my friend for once, and not knowing whether he was happy with Colin about the pictures, or was ready to behead him with a quick spell was rather nerve-wracking. Finally, my best friend spoke up. "These are good pictures, Colin, worthy of the front page. I'll read over your article later, thank you." He never once looked at Colin as the younger man walked out of the room. Harry was still furious at Colin for being so uncaring at the Flyway, but what could he expect from a man who only had his younger brother?  
  
I glanced over the pictures; each one bringing back something about the incident that was more frightening than the last. Shaking my head in disbelief, I set about trying to patch together what this first attack in almost two years could mean. The first picture caught my eye immediately.  
  
The thought that the world had healed all wounds and become a happy family after VW2 left my mind. No one was singing "We Are The World" today, and I most definitely wasn't. Whoever caused the destruction I saw in that first picture, should be dragged into the street and be drawn and quartered. I looked at the picture for five seconds before I had to look away. I glanced up at Harry. He had a grimace on his face, but he answered the question I had in my mind. "That is the picture that will go on the front page. These others will accompany Colin's article on another page."  
  
I dared another glance at the picture, and was horrified again. My blood felt chilled. The picture was of the floor of the Flyway. Three wands were piled up, as were their occupants. One of the brooms had a broom seat for what had to have been a wizard child no more than 6 months old. Beneath the bodies of the three adult wizards, who were all dead, a pool of blood was seeping out. Sticking out from underneath one of the wizard's back, was the hand of that six-month-old baby.  
  
Moving pictures have their good qualities. On happy occasions there is nothing better then seeing the joy on people's faces as they relive the scene in the picture over and over. The laughter, though silent, can be heard because the pictures move and.and.breath. In this case, however, the movement of the wizarding picture was a cruel joke. Smoke from the brooms was billowing up, slowly forming angry black clouds over the four dead bodies. The pool of blood flowed outward, ripples preceding the creeping expanse of its boundaries on the blackened floor of what was once the clear bottom of the Flyway.  
  
I finally tore my eyes away a second time, and put the picture face down on Harry's desk. Cho, who had been looking over my shoulder at the picture, propped her elbow up on the arm of her chair, and put her head in her hand. I suspected she was hiding tears. One hand drifted over her belly, rubbing it twice before it finally came to a rest back on the other arm of the chair.  
  
I flipped through the other pictures, and I decided that Harry was right to use the picture he was using for the front page. The others, all moving pictures of billowing smoke, piles of brooms, and the shattered remains of the Flyway, didn't speak the multitudes that that one, innocent hand did.  
  
I was about to hand the stack of pictures back to Harry when something caught my eye. The picture was like the rest, this one a pile of brooms and bodies. One of the brooms, or rather three of the brooms were in an upside down "V" formation, as in the SUB. Staring at it, I realized that all three of the brooms had an insignia on its handle next to the "Firebolt 2001" insignia. I pointed it out to Harry, and for a second I thought I saw a look of knowing cross his face, but it was hurriedly replaced by one of confusion. I pondered it for a moment, and decided I had been mistaken.  
  
He looked over it for a second before he commented. "I don't know what that means. It's a symbol I seem to recall from somewhere before.it looks like a mix between the Dark Mark, with the skull with the snake for a tongue, and what appears to be a symbol of two hands, both tattooed with the dark mark, crossing arms in a forearm grasping symbol of brotherhood, underneath the mark." He examined it for a minute longer. "Definitely some kind of Death Eaters, but I don't understand the symbol for brotherhood."  
  
Cho was giving her love an intense look, as if she knew that he was hiding something from us. I noticed Harry give her a look that shouted I can't tell you. Cho didn't seem pleased, but she also didn't look in any shape to argue. Glancing over her, I realized that the same sickness she had been experiencing the day before had returned. Her face, a slight shade of green, was in a semi-hidden grimace of discomfort. After several minutes she excused her self, and hurriedly left the room. "Is she still not feeling well?" I asked my best friend, who was still studying the picture.  
  
After several moments, as I thought he hadn't heard me and I was going to ask again, Harry finally looked up and answered me. "Yes, apparently the bug isn't a 24-hour one as we originally thought. She'll be fine I'm sure." But the same worried look he had shown yesterday was still present on his face. Harry wasn't telling me a lot of things.  
  
He went back to working on the article, however, his quill lightly scratching over the parchment. I sat in silence for several minutes, and finally stood up. Without stopping his writing, or looking up at me, Harry asked. "Where are you off to?"  
  
I turned to leave and answered. "I'm going to look around the newsroom.and find Cho."  
  
He nodded, again seeming not to hear me, so I left the large office, closing the door behind me. I happened to catch sight of the plaque that hung on the wall next to his double doors.  
  
Harry Potter, Editor-In-Chief, Daily Prophet  
  
And underneath that it had  
  
At 22 years old, this anti-terrorism journalist was the first to interview the Al Qaeda Muggle terrorist organization leader, Osama Bin Laden, about his involvement with the wizarding terrorist sects, is the youngest wizard ever to act as Editor-In-Chief.  
  
I remembered that article, which had rocked the wizarding world the year before. Thinking about the year before, it reminded me how much time had passed since the Dumbledorian Concord (the peace after the war, called in other realms of the earth the Pax Dumbledorica) began. I graduated from Hogwarts in 1998, heralded the turn of the century huddling in my room in fear of Death Eaters who had escaped the Auror patrols hunting them, as I had received over a hundred death threats for my part in the killing of Voldemort my fifth year at Hogwarts.  
  
I made my way down the hall, found a restroom, gladly relieved myself there, and headed back towards Harry's office. I hadn't run into Cho on the way, so she was either still in the bathroom, or back in her love's office.  
  
When I opened the doors, Harry barely acknowledged me, and started walking around the room, looking at all his trinkets. Hanging on the wall was a case with a Muggle lock on it. I knew that that wasn't the only thing protecting this case from being opened, for inside rested the wand that had been charged with the slaying of thousands of people, either directly, or by command from its owner. The wand was Voldemort's wand. As if on cue, as I stared at the wand, the Phoenix whose tail feather rested within the ebony expanse of that tool of destruction flew in Harry's open window and alighted on a mount next to Harry's high-backed chair.  
  
Fawkes let out a slight chirp, a beautiful sound. Anyone who has heard the song of a phoenix does not know the haunting chords of a truly beautiful animal. After Voldemort's defeat at Harry's hand, and the retreat of the remaining Death Eaters from the Hogwarts ground, the student body and remaining faculty mourned the death of their headmaster, a man who was the strongest wizard to walk the face of Gaea's green Earth in a millennia. Fawkes had warbled his sad tune for days after his master's death and had allowed none but Harry to even be in the same room as him. The attachment he felt to Harry, or at least to his wand, was so immense, that Harry had been forced to take Fawkes in as his own pet, as hard as the reminder of Dumbledore was.  
  
Harry turned to look at the gorgeous bird, petted him lightly, and gave him a small treat from his desk drawer. Fawkes let out a happy chirp, and then promptly fell asleep.  
  
Looking back at the wand I was amazed that something so simple had been the death of the greatest wizard in the world, not to mention both of Harry's parents and Cedric Diggory as well.  
  
Moving on I looked over hundreds of trinkets that were Harry personified. The first snitch he ever caught was sitting on a small shelf next to a picture that nearly made me fall down where I stood. Picking it up, I carried it over to a seat, where I promptly fell into the cushioned expanse and just stared.  
  
Looking back up at me was another cruel joke, but one that had once been a very happy picture. I recognized myself immediately from my fourth year at Hogwarts. I was smiling from ear to ear, a head taller than Harry who was giving the camera an open mouthed grin. I could tell we were both laughing at his success with the first task of the Tri-Wizard tournament. He had the golden "dragon" egg in his arms.  
  
On the other side of Harry, Hermione was standing, a smile spread across her face that spoke multitudes. Tear tracks were visible on her eyes from where she had been crying because she was afraid for Harry's safety during the task.  
  
Flipping the picture frame over, I noticed a tag that was written in Harry's scrawl. "Ron, Me, and Hermione-Fourth Year-After First Tri-Wizard task." Another tag below it, however, caught my eye. "Hermione and Ron- Fifth Year-Christmas Dinner."  
  
Turning the picture over, I noticed that it was smaller than the frame, so part of a picture that was behind it could be seen as well. Once again flipping the frame around, I took off the back of the frame, and pulled out the two pictures that were inside. I tremblingly pulled the back picture up, and turned it over.  
  
This time, I did begin to cry. I felt the rivulets of water run down my face, one, into the corner of my mouth, the other, running to drip of the middle of my chin. The picture had been taken less than five weeks before Hermione's death.  
  
The picture would have been the happiest object in the world, had Hermione been sitting next to me when I saw it, but at this, another cruel joke of the wizarding world was there to haunt me, and tempt me back to hermitage.  
  
Hermione and I were sitting at the sparsely populated Gryffindor table, as more people then usual had gone home for holidays because of the war. Looking at us, however, you would think that the world was as peaceful as ever, when in reality the only peace in the world was in the Hogwarts halls and classrooms. We were locked at the lips, a position we had held for more almost two months. Our first official "date" had been to the Halloween feast that had become one of my most cherished memories.  
  
In the picture, Hermione was looking out of the corner of her eye at the camera in a pleading way. Her look was as plain as day: "Harry! Turn the camera off and do not take a picture right now!"  
  
My hand was up, trying to block the view of the camera, but my eyes were closed, and most of my senses were trained on Hermione. My hand, which went off into the distance past the edge of the camera's view, was nowhere near blocking the iris of the camera that day.  
  
I held the picture to me, and suddenly, memories began to flood my brain. Memories I had long since forgotten.memories of a time five weeks after this pictures birth when the world was not as happy as it had been on that Christmas night.  
  
"They will break our defenses before too long. Dumbledore knows this." Hermione's voice was matter of fact, but I knew that she was terrified.  
  
I turned to Harry, who was lost in thought. "What do you think is going to happen? They've begun their siege, and their assaults will bring down our guard. I saw the worry in Dumbledore's eyes today at dinner."  
  
Harry finally spoke. "Yes, and when they finally break through, they will be given one hell of a fight. Blood and vinegar." I marveled at him for a moment. Harry had always been my best friend, since our first year at Hogwarts, but this Harry was different. The determination in his eyes was almost frightening. I would hate to be a Death Eater who met that gaze in a dark Hogwarts hall. I suppose I was seeing the transformation of my friend. If I had to describe his overall persona at the moment, it would be done in one word. Valor.  
  
Hermione was looking over something she had written down, apparently notes from Dumbledore's dinner announcements. "He mentioned that if the defenses fail, all students would be as safe as they would normally be. I think he has to have something cooked up that will protect us, but what?"  
  
I sighed. "I don't think we'll know un-" my phrase was cut off as an explosion rocked the tower that Gryffindor's common room was in. Looking up at the window, I saw the bright light of a Blaze flash against the protective spells of Hogwarts, and then blink out of existence. The defenses still held.  
  
Of course, it was only a week later when they finally did fail. Since that day I've had a long time to think, and I have to say that the defenses could have stayed up forever. I believe Dumbledore allowed them to come down, because with some clairvoyance he saw that, even if it meant his own death, Voldemort would come, and die at the hands of the boy wizard he had tried to kill so many times.  
  
I was in the Great Hall when the doors blew open, as was everyone else. Snape ran in screaming for Dumbledore. It had been the first time I'd seen the Potions professor since the day he had gone off to spy in the Death Eaters surrounding Hogwarts two weeks before, and he looked very much worse for the wear.  
  
It was during lunch, and Dumbledore immediately stood up. He knew that the time had come. I still remember his clear voice, giving the last true announcement he ever made at Hogwarts. "Prefects, please, escort all of your students to the Forbidden Forest. The teachers will fight the Death Eaters back until every single student is within its expanse, and then we will perform an all out eradication of the Death Eaters from our grounds."  
  
Immediately all the Prefects stood, and began to escort their students out. We had been having drills all year, up until the point that the siege began, in case something like this occurred. The Gryffindors were outside along with every other house before we all realized how close we had been to dying. The focal point of an attack had leveled the protective shielding around the Astronomy Tower, where Professor Sinistra rushed to stop the first wave of Death Eaters entering the school. The Professor killed fifteen before being taken down herself, and those fifteen had been the time we needed to get out of the castle and onto the grounds.  
  
It wasn't until all the Hufflepuff students were in the forest, and the Slytherins were beginning to enter its fringes that the Death Eaters realized we were outside, and began their assault. The Gryffindors were after the Slytherins on the grounds, and Ravenclaw was behind us, and I was genuinely afraid that I would be killed before I made it to the "safety" that Dumbledore promised the forest would bring.  
  
I remember the cry from the woods as Professor Sprout came running out of the woods, wand brandished. She was yelling "STUPEFY" over and over while pointing her wand at Death Eaters who were soon knocked out by the spell. The rest of the Slytherins were in the woods before I witnessed the first death of the major battle. I remember seeing the Death Eater step out of the shadows behind Hagrid's house, point his wand at the Herbology professor, and say the final words in a voice I would recognize anywhere as Lucius Malfoy's. "Avada Kedavra!" The green ball that flew from his wand and stole the Professor's life lit the whole of the grounds with its green light. The rushing sound was loud, and it haunted my ears.  
  
At this point, the Gryffindor first, second, third, and fourth years were running full speed to the woods. They had thrown all their doubts about its safety aside and chose death by werewolf or giant spider over death by wizard. Harry, Hermione, and myself, however, were standing our ground as the other Gryffindors rushed past us. We were soon joined by a few other fifth years, most of the sixth years, and all the seventh years. I looked towards Ravenclaw's students, still only half way to the forest, and knew that if we didn't do something, they would all die. A group of at least fifty Death Eaters were running towards them, and gaining ground on the terrified students.  
  
I yelled over the sounds of screaming students. "WE HAVE TO PROTECT THE RAVENCLAWS! THEY WON'T MAKE IT OTHERWISE!"  
  
I heard several whoops from my fellow Gryffindors, and Harry let out a battle cry. "GIVE THEM BLOOD AND VINEGAR, GRYFFINDORS! BLOOD AND VINEGAR!" We all joined in his call, and charged at the unsuspecting Death Eaters.  
  
I remember a tall body joining our charge, and I also remember looking up to my surprise that McGonagall was running along next to me. As soon as we were within twenty feet of the Death Eaters, who were still charging at the Ravenclaws, the forty of us pointed our wands at them, and shouted in one voice. "STUPEFY!" Forty white streaks of light shot out from us, and drilled into the unsuspecting Death Eaters. Half of those not knocked out by the blasts, continued running after the Ravenclaws, as the rest turned to face us.  
  
Before those taking us on could cast one spell, I heard the cry of "STUPEFY!" again. The only Death Eaters from that group that still remained had caught up with the Ravenclaws. One screaming second year had been grabbed, and as one wizard held him, another placed his wand against his skull, testing his blood. The casters of the spell that saved us ran over. They were a group of sixth and seventh year students who stared in horror as one of their own, a Muggle born, was about to be the third to die.  
  
The Death Eater who was testing the blood, nodded, stepped back, and pointed his wand at the second year, who passed out from shock. The Death Eater muttered the first word of the death curse as the other stepped away from the unconscious student. "Avada-" he didn't finish, however. Just as he was uttering the first syllable of Kedavra, a purple light slammed into the side of the wizard's head, and blew it apart. Bone and gore sprayed everywhere, and several students ran out, throwing up at the sight. The Death Eater who had been holding the student moments before suffered a similar fate as the purple light tore through his stomach, exploding outward, killing him instantly.  
  
Professor Snape ran up, wand raised, and shouted another spell, which caused the bodies of the two dead wizards to turn to ash and blow away on the howling February wind. He turned to us for a moment, just long enough to advise us on the spell he had just used. "Point your wand directly at what you want to hit, hold it firm, and shout, "Potens Noceo!" This will kill or maim them, depending on where you hit them." He ran off, providing a guard for the last few Ravenclaw students still running towards the forest. He killed at least thirty Death Eaters before he was hit by a maiming spell in the leg and was forced to limp away and disappear into the forest.  
  
Harry yelled for us to split up, and we followed his commands without a second thought. It was by far the most accepted thought in the group at that moment that Harry was in charge, as Dumbledore was no where to be seen. As groups of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students ran off in all directions to fight off the invaders, I looked around to see that Hermione, Harry, Cho, Fred, George, and two other Ravenclaws I didn't know were still with me. Harry turned to us. "I have a feeling that something bad is about to happen. I don't know what it is bu-." He didn't finish his statement before he yelled an obscenity at what had just appeared in the air.  
  
At the sound of an echoing "MORSMORDRE!" which I also could tell was the voice of Lucius Malfoy, a Dark Mark flared into existence over our heads, and spiraled up in the air to rest over the Quidditch field. It began to spin slowly for the whole of the world to see and produced a gleaming green light that cast a pallid, macabre glow on every square inch of the Hogwarts grounds. Screaming erupted from the trees at the sight, and the crashing of hundreds of students heading deeper through the forest rent the night air.  
  
Harry doubled over, screaming as he clutched his head and scar. I ran over to him, as did Hermione and Cho, and we laid him out on his back. Hermione, Cho, and I weren't paying attention to our surroundings, but as Harry slowly stopped screaming, I heard the spell Snape had taught us shouted several times by Fred, George, and the two Ravenclaws.  
  
When Harry finally stopped, he looked up and into my eyes. "He is here! The true battle now begins!"  
  
Harry cleared his throat, and I looked up from my reminiscence, but he was still writing hard on his article. I looked over to see that Cho was back and asleep in her own chair. Glancing at my watch I saw that it was 2:30.  
  
Looking once more at the picture of Hermione and me, I put it in a pocket in my robe, placed the picture of the three of us back in the frame, put the backing on, and took the second tag off.  
  
I stood, placed the picture back on the shelf, and then returned to my seat. At that moment, Harry finished writing, and held up his parchment, blowing on it lightly to dry it.  
  
He held it up to me, and I took it from him and sat back to read as he walked around his desk to have a hushed conversation with a still ill Cho.  
  
I turned to the parchment.  
  
Flyway-March 2, 2001-The Wizarding World will be looking on in horror as they awake to the news that the evils of the world have yet to rest. On March 2, at exactly 9:17 a.m. a Blaze was used on the central London turn off ramp from the Grand Dumbledore Highway portion of the Flyway. The first counts of casualties are now at 111, with most bodies being unidentifiable by facial features alone. Those are the facts.  
  
The world as it is known today, was not won at a cheap price. The Dumbledorian Concord, though only fledgling at its age of three, was far from being free. The wizards of the Order fought with all their might, and gave their lives, for the peace that is now felt by the world. This action, in one second of thought by a suicide broomer, ended that peace.  
  
The wizards of the world wake up this morning to the fact that they celebrated too soon.  
  
The world is not ready for peace.  
  
It isn't ready, because organizations like the Reapers of Light, who have claimed responsibility for the bombing, would hate enough to kill. The official statement from the Reaper's spokesman says just this ".the world chose Muggles over wizards when it chose to fight against Voldemort. With this first in a line of attacks, as you will see many attacks will come, the world will learn to tremble again, and those wizards of Muggle birth will pay for being born as Mudbloods." The old hatreds still exist, and until the world learns tolerance, true peace-a true Concord-cannot become reality.  
  
This article will serve as a warning to you all. The Reapers have promised to strike again, and they will. Following their example, the other terrowizard organizations of the world will assault us. They use fear to conquer, and conquer they will.  
  
Unless the wizarding world fights back.  
  
I stopped reading there. Harry went on to more of an editorial badgering to the ministry to form the Ministry Army that he had been trying to solicit for years. Harry had always said that the only way to truly get peace, was to fight, and fight he would do. His proposals to Ministry officials would call for Aurors all around England to join together and do battle with the terrorist organizations. Rather then hunting them down one at a time as they do now, Harry would have them assault the hideouts and meetings of the organizations.  
  
I read that much of the article again and put the parchment on Harry's desk. With some reluctance I applauded Harry. I didn't agree with his ideas most the time. Fighting to end fighting was not my idea of peace. "It is good. Says what the world needs to hear."  
  
He was looking out his window. "I don't sugar coat the issues, Ron, and you know that the only way to win the peace is to fight. Dumbledore knew that.and he died for it."  
  
I didn't want to argue with him as Harry had read the inflection in my voice. When I didn't answer, he continued. "Would you have his death be in vain, Ron? Would you have the Concord and the United Wizarding Nations go to the wayside because we don't want to fight for our freedom? Sod peace at this point, Ron. We must fight, or we cannot hope to ever be free."  
  
I hadn't changed his views in three years, and I knew I couldn't change them now, so I changed what I could.the subject. "It's nearly three. Shouldn't we be getting back to your home to wait for Fred and George?"  
  
He stood, stretched his arms high above his head, and nodded. Rolling up his article, he whistled, and Fawkes flew over and landed on his arm. He told the phoenix to head home, and that we would go there, and then be back later. The bird nibbled his finer affectionately, and then flew out the high open window he had flown in earlier.  
  
We walked out of the office, where Harry handed his parchment to someone screaming into the telephone. The nametag on her desk read "Lauren Roberts- Staff Editor." She was second in command after Harry. She took the parchment from him, mouthed a thank you, and then took the pictures as well. He handed her a post-it parchment note with directions on the layout. As we were walking out, I happened to glance to my right where I saw a mousy woman working at a desk. I don't know why she caught my eye, as she was one of those people who would "disappear in the masses" without a second though, but her nametag read "Sara Grey-Copy Editor". I wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or not, and I didn't have time to ponder it as we immediately left the Daily Prophet building behind, to go and meet the enigma of Charlotte Grey.  
  
******  
  
Cho, Harry, Fred, George, and myself were standing outside the brick wall separating the back lot of the Leaky Cauldron from the bustling wizarding district of Diagon Alley. We had just enjoyed a round of butterbeer, as much as you can enjoy something after being a witness to something as horrific as the attack on the Flyway.  
  
Harry stepped forward and tapped the brick three up and two across three times. It wiggled lightly and a hole appeared in the middle, and then spread outwards until we were all facing a large archway that opened up into a world of magic.  
  
The streets of Diagon Alley were the stuff that Muggle fairy tales are made. Witches and wizards poured along its cobblestone streets as hundreds of owls flitted overhead. Goblins, on errands for Gringotts, were running up and down the long curving alley and stopping at various businesses.  
  
I had visited Diagon Alley hundreds of times in my lifetime, but each and every visit amazed me as much or more than the last. As I was staring off down the bustling street, I almost bumped into a witch carrying a baby wizard in her arms who was coming out of Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. I muttered an apology, but she stared at me, dropping the bags of freshly bought robes that she was carrying. "Wizards with broomsticks! You're Ron Weasley!" Her shout rang out across an area of the Alley, and everyone turned to look at our small procession. Hundreds of pairs of eyes settled upon me, and then drifted over to Harry. Across the street from Madame Malkin's, several younger witches and wizards were coming out of Gladrags. As soon as they caught site of us, they dropped all their risqué robes and ran over, immediately screaming for autographs. It all reminded me enormously of a scene I had once seen in the Daily Prophet when the wizard band The Beatles went into the Muggle world. They won crowds across the world, and screaming masses would welcome them at every occasion. I hoped sincerely that this didn't happen to me at every outing.  
  
Cho finally caught everyone's attention, and she was then harassed as Fred, George, and I disappeared into the 3W's Diagon Alley shop. Harry and Cho finally escaped the crowd and followed us minutes later. The twins led us back into a secret back room, which led into a long hallway. As we walked farther down the hall, the door at the end seemed to get smaller and smaller. When we finally reached it, it was only as tall as my waist. Fred and George chuckled as Cho and I tried to pry the small door open to no avail. Finally, Harry stepped up with his wand, taped a small 3W's crest that had escaped my vision as I worked on the door. As soon as his wand made contact, the whole wall swung open, a door itself.  
  
The area I was looking upon now was the antithesis of all the glitz, glamour, and fairy tale happiness of Diagon Alley. A long winding alley, that ran parallel to the alley of Diagon, snaked its way along through the darkness cast by high eaves, overhangs, and the general mood of the whole place.  
  
Dark shops lined the small alley from one end to the other as the shadows cast from the tall Diagon shops shifted and turned and swirled as the few patrons of the street scurried around. Everyone there, aside from us, was wearing hooded cloaks that covered their face from prying eyes as they walked out of shops with poisonous candles, illegal dragons eggs, and non- descript packages.  
  
The five of us walked along the curving alley. It was much smaller and shorter than Diagon, sporting a third the number of shops, but its darkness hid its true size and made it seem to stretch on endlessly. We, however, reached a small turn off from the main alley that led in between to buildings. A small trickle of water ran down the center of this smaller alley and, as we walked through it, the sound of our splashing feet echoed around the closed in expanse. We soon marched through the thin alley and back onto a turn of Knockturn Alley that sported mostly houses. We walked along till its end, and there, amid the darkness, was one house that seemed to be lit by an unearthly glow. Outside in its small front yard/garden, gorgeous flowers bloomed along the cobblestone walkway leading up to the front door. The house apparently served as shop and homestead as over the door a sign read "Sorceress Grey's Potions for Ills and Ailments."  
  
Fred and George led us up the walkway. As everyone else entered into the small building, I noticed a small dove fly from the roof and onto a small bush. I didn't think anything of the bird, which was singing a beautiful song, until I noticed its eyes. Normal bird eyes were brown, black, golden, or sometimes gray, but this dove's eyes were a sparkling, knowing violet. Bending down, I looked into the bird's eye, and I could almost swear that it peered back at me. I whistled at it, but it flew away, the sound of its song fading. It circled around the house, and flew into a high, second-story window of Char's house.  
  
I finally made my way up onto the porch and through the front door moments after everyone else, and when I walked into the room, I was genuinely surprised. What I had suspected to be a dark shop was nothing more than a simple potions shop. Nothing sinister, like skulls with candles stuck in them, glinted at me from the clean shelves. The store, which took up the whole of the bottom story, doubled as potions shop, and café. Three tables were set up in an area away from the shelves of supplies and potions, and a sign over the counter read "Tea-1 sickle." Not a huge selection, but a selection nonetheless. If I didn't know about the exterior of the house, the alley that was the focal point of dark wizardly transactions in the Diagon Alley area, I would think that this shop was located in quaint Hogsmede or the small wizarding community in Wales, Kent.  
  
I heard the song of the bird again, and I looked towards its origin. There, on the counter, was the dove hopping along top of a bouquet of yellow and pink flowers. It's strange, violet eyes stared out at me with a knowing glance. Fred and George walked up to the dove and addressed it. "Well, any new products, dear?"  
  
It took me a moment to figure it out, but by the time I had, the dove had leapt off the counter to the center of the floor between the three tables and transfigured into a tall, beautiful, but definitely mysterious woman. I knew that she was Charlotte Grey, and I suddenly remembered that I had seen her name on the registered Animagi list when I had looked at it all those many years ago. She turned, picked the flowers up from the counter, and promptly deposited them into a waiting vase next to an antique looking cash register.  
  
After caring for the plants, she finally turned to us with a flourish and curtsy, and said, "Welcome to my store! It is good to see you twins again, but I fear that I have yet to make the acquaintance of these others, though all of their reputations precede them."  
  
Her hair, the slightest golden brown, shimmered as she walked past one of her windows where a beam of golden sunlight streamed through. She was a tall, beautiful witch, but her most interesting feature was her eyes. They were a violet of the color of royal robes. Char walked up to each of us, grasped our hands in a loving matter, allowed us to introduce ourselves, and then she walked onto the next. She instinctively knew Harry, and they shared a silent moment of gazing into each other's eyes, as if they could speak without forming words. Char then moved on to Cho, and I subtly caught her glancing at Cho's stomach for a moment. A smile spread across the witch's face, but Cho seemed crestfallen. Char put a hand to her cheek, shared a stare into her eyes for a moment, and then came to me.  
  
Once she stared into my eyes, I was amazed that the woman lived alone. Her simple look enraptured me more so than any Glamour could. She spoke, her voice like silken rose petals. "Ron Weasley, I presume. It is remarkable to see your face after such a long while that you have not been in the world. Welcome back."  
  
She continued to stand before me, as she had the others, and I suddenly knew why. Her voice, the silken voice, entered this time not through my ears, but through my mind. Ron Weasley.I sense a great turmoil within you. You have come seeking my help, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to help you, but I promise, I will do my best.  
  
I nodded, and she squeezed my hand lightly, and I felt the cold of a ring on my finger, and then walked away, behind the counter. I looked down into my hand and just noticed a small imprint from the lapis jewel of the only ring on Charlotte's hands. She waved that hand, and six teacups flew out of the cupboard and alighted on the counter. I blinked twice. She had just summoned six things at once without a wand or even a spoken word. She was truly remarkable. I had only seen magic performed without a wand twice in my lifetime. Once, when Hermione had unzipped my pants with a mere motion of her hand (and that is as far as THAT time went, mind you!) and again when Dumbledore and Voldemort fought on the Quidditch pitch so long ago.  
  
She pulled a pot off a small stove in the corner, and poured out the amber tea into the six cups, and then levitated them, again without the use of a wand, to one of the tables. We all pulled up chairs and sat down, taking our cups as they floated in our direction. Char stood for a moment, looking around, and apparently found what she was searching for as she held up her hand, and her willow wand flew from the top of one of the shelves and into her hand. She muttered a slight spell and suddenly delicious looking scones appeared at the center of the table, and we all took one. The flavor was magnificent. Char sat down, and immediately addressed the twins. "No, nothing new since your last visit. I deal in mostly older charms and potions anyways."  
  
It took me a moment to register the fact that she was replying to a question that had been asked a good ten minutes before. We sat in silence for a moment, sipping the tea and eating the scones, until Fred finally spoke up. "We brought Ron here to meet you because he wants to find some things out about certain curses.and Harry has a question to ask you in private as well." Char looked into Harry's eyes, and he nodded in response to something asked in his mind. They maintained this gaze for several minutes; Char forcefully shook her head and then turned to me.  
  
"Ron Weasley.what brings you, oh friend of the Blessed One, to my humble house?" She sipped her tea, but never lost eye contact with me.  
  
I stammered, trying to decide exactly how to pose the question, when I suddenly remembered. "I wanted to find out some things about the Avada Kedavra curse. Aside from Harry, have there been any survivors? How does one go about surviving?"  
  
Char sipped her tea again, and when she responded, it was not in answer to my question. "Please ask your first question first, not your second question first."  
  
I stared at her, wondering what on earth she meant, when it suddenly hit me. Pulling the letter out of my cloak pocket, I handed it to her, and she scanned over it. "You want to know whether or not this is a forgery?" I nodded. "I'm not sure if I can tell you that. I can definitely feel the essence of a woman in the writing and inflection, but whether or not the penned writing is that of Hermione Granger, is unknown. I have no taste of the woman's magic; so therefore, I don't know how to recognize it. Can you tell me her story? What happened to her to make you doubt the truth of this letter?"  
  
Harry and Cho were giving me encouraging looks and the twins were roaming up and down the small aisles between the shelves, so I started telling Char the tale. I told her all about the attack on Hogwarts by the Death Eaters, about how I had sent Hermione to the infirmary, a place I thought she would be safe, the moment Voldemort and Dumbledore began their duel. I told her that, after the duel and Harry's disappearance, I went to the infirmary to find everyone there dead, along with the bodies of the three Death Eaters who had attacked. I thought it strange, as Death Eaters usually traveled in packs of four, but I had shrugged it off then. Everyone was dead, so at least one Death Eater had to have survived. I searched the infirmary a hundred times but never once did I, or anyone else find Hermione's body. My final decision was that that final Death Eater as some revenge had taken her body, but that she was most certainly dead. I never questioned that truth.  
  
When I finished my tale, Char stared into my eyes for several long, agonizing moments, before she finally spoke. "I know that you cannot possibly know the whole story of this woman. She apparently meant very much to you, Ron." she looked at Harry, ".and to you, Harry Potter. I am not sure how much support or comfort I can offer for you at this time. Since no body was ever found, it is hard to be certain that she is dead, but Hermione Granger, just like Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, was a symbol of the goodness of the Valor, and most definitely one of the clandestine Seraphs, so.they took her body away, where it couldn't be affected by the Valor's mercy."  
  
We all shared confused glances, but Char stared into the distance as if she were seeing beyond just this room. The Valor? Seraphs? She wasn't offering any clues as to what these two bodies were, but apparently they were of some importance.  
  
She sipped her tea, and then continued on a different route of explanation. "There are only two things that can allow someone to survive the curse of Avada Kedavra. There is no known anti-curse, so only the ancient magic invoked by certain actions allow the cursed to be saved. One, in Harry's case, comes when someone who loves you beyond life sacrifices himself or herself to save you. The curse cannot recognize that one emotion, the most difficult emotion of them all, as it is breed from hate-the simplest of emotions. It will pass over, or at worse, if the love is strong enough, reflect away from the cursed and towards the curser."  
  
She paused, and then explained the other possible salvation. "The other way someone can survive the curse is if they are granted a reprieve by the angel of death. Avada Kedavra calls the angel from its place in the Great Beyond, and forces it to reap a life. If the angel, however, can see that the person's life-or death as it stands-will affect the outcome of the manifest destiny of the world, then the angel will overcome the call of the curse, and pass over the intended target. Unlike the protection of love, this isn't a permanent salvation. Once the person finishes the business they were intended to do, they will fade into memory.unless they can find the unconditional love of someone who they love unconditionally in return."  
  
She stared off again, and I could tell she seriously doubted that Hermione could affect the world any more, now that Voldemort was destroyed.  
  
Finally, her eyes snapped back to focus after what seemed like an eternity of her own pensive stare. Charlotte looked at me with her unreadable violet eyes and sadly announced her decision. "No, I'm sorry, Ron. There is no way that she could have survived the curse. She died, but her spirit will be with you always. I wish I could deliver better news to you, but I can't. It is the curse of my knowledge that I have a burden of truth. I have shared everything with you, and now I know that.I'm sorry.Hermione cannot have written that note."  
  
I let out a soft cry. Those final words had closed the books on all the hopes I had that Hermione was indeed still alive. Those words ended my hopes that I would take a muggle cab to Notting Hill and see her sitting outside a café drinking a latte. I thanked Char, not able to say more than a few words for fear that I would break down in front of my friend, and then stood to leave. Harry placed a comforting hand on my shoulder, somehow lending his strength to me for a moment as Cho let her own tears run. Suddenly, however, I was stopped from leaving as a small owl plopped down on the table, right in the middle of the scones. "Pigwidgeon?" I explained dumbly. Why had he escaped this morning only to follow me all the way to Knockturn Alley?  
  
I picked up the hyperactive owl up in one hand, its head turning this way and that as it hooted happily at its return to my arms. Taking the roll of parchment attached to its leg, I set him down and offered him a bite of one of the scones he had destroyed in landing. Unrolling the parchment I glanced over the flourished scrawl, immediately turned on my heel, and began to dash towards the door. I was quickly stopped, however, by the still calm voice of Charlotte. "Ron, did she have unfinished business?"  
  
I looked at her, allowing my eyes to speak for me. I wasn't sure, but it sure as hell felt like Hermione was alive. She nodded and suddenly disappeared. I was still amazed at her abilities to use magic without the use of a wand. Her mental capacity was far beyond any that I had experienced aside from Hermione, who could also do acts without the magical aid of dragon heartstring or phoenix tail feather.  
  
I told Pigwidgeon to head back to the burrow.  
  
Looking at the empty chair Char had been sitting in moments before, I turned back on my heading, and left the small place of light in the darkness that was Knockturn Alley. Reaching the main entrance to Diagon Alley from Knockturn before I had time to think, I looked up to see Harry and Cho standing at the entrance. They had been clear headed enough to aparate apparently; the twins were nowhere to be seen. When I walked up to them Harry suggested that we head to his and Cho's apartment. "Fred and George both decided to Apparate home, it's been a long day for them. You can tell us whatever you worked up there." I nodded and he and Cho disappeared simultaneously and I followed moments later, after looking over the short message once more.  
  
******  
  
For the second time in as many days, my friends and I were huddled around a piece of paper that controlled our will as if it were some deity. We had read this piece of parchment even more than Hermione's letter, simply because it was a mystery. There was no knowing what was the meaning of it, who wrote it, or where it came from.  
  
I took it back from Harry who had gawked at it for his sixth time. There was no sound in the house, hadn't been any for a full thirty minutes, except that of Pig's utter titillation at meeting his old friend Crookshanks again. Looking over the elaborate scrawl, I tried to imagine who could have written it. It was in silvery green ink that shimmered in the fading sunlight, and on expensive, thick parchment like that which Not- Hermione's letter (as we'd begun to call it) came on.  
  
You hated me then I help you now Forgive me my sins And I'll show you how  
  
Follow my call  
  
To Holland Park You will learn all At a bench after dark I'll see you then At the time that I will Forgive me our past  
  
And head to Notting Hill  
  
~Remember this time and date, son of Weasley. 9:00 p.m., the Ides of March.  
  
Aside from the obvious fact that the letter was written in verse, the fact that the sender is anonymous was beyond strange. I stared at Pig wondering how he possibly knew this morning to escape from his cage and fly off so he could deliver this message to me. The last phrase caught my eye, as it had the previous twenty-nine times I'd read the short passage. ".and head to Notting Hill." The mention of that Muggle place again. Could this letter be linked with the Not-Hermione letter? Could they be from the same writer, or is it just a sick coincidence?  
  
"It sounds as if whomever the writer is, he or she is from your past. You knew them long ago, and apparently didn't like them. Of course that isn't much of a lead. You didn't like very many non-Gryffindors at Hogwarts. You thought us Ravies were too smart; the Puffs to dutiful; and the Slytherins to Slytherin." Cho commented as she stared out the bay window that looked out on the large garden that served as a port for Apparaters.  
  
I followed her gaze and saw a tawny owl fly past my vista. It didn't stop, however, so I breathed a sigh of relief, as no new conundrums would be presented to me yet. I stood up and began to pace around, and then finally announced that I'd go get us all drinks. Cho joined me in the kitchen as Harry was casting searching spells on the paper to try to decipher its origin.  
  
"Where does he learn that stuff?" I questioned as I took three Smirnoffs out of the fridge. Cho put a hand on my arm, took one of the bottles, and put it back in the fridge. She grabbed a healthy looking fruit drink instead.  
  
She answered my question look with a wave of her hand and an "I got to watch the body" look. I shrugged it off and leaned back against the cabinet. "I don't understand anything anymore, Cho. It's like.someone came into my life and ripped it to pieces. I come out of hiding, as it were, and suddenly I'm being bombarded with everything under the sun. I don't understand." I took a drink of the drink, allowing the warm effect of the alcohol to wash through my body.  
  
Cho sighed, turning to me with a sincere look. "I'm so sorry for everything, Ron. I'm sure it will all work itself out in the end, and Harry and I will be with you the whole time. I just-" She stopped, looking at me tentatively, but then decided to continue. "Ron, I hope you've thought that the possibility that Hermione is still.alive.is very small. We all want it, love, but she's been missing for three years. Wouldn't she have come forward before now?"  
  
I shook my head. "I can't think that she was taken captive and taken to that hell that Voldemort called home. Pandemonium was no place for Hermione, and I refuse to believe that that is where she was. She may be dead, but I can't see her being taken captive.she was the strongest witch of her time."  
  
Cho smiled at my vim. "I understand, Ron. I wouldn't want her to have been taken there either. From what I hear it was worse than Azkaban.if you weren't one of his followers, that is." She got a look in her eye and then changed the subject. "Do you think that Voldemort had control over every dark wizard and witch in the world?"  
  
After having read every book on the subject of terrowizard organizations and Voldemort, I knew my answer would be pretty accurate. "Yes. From all the accounts I've heard, they regarded him as the 'Dark Lord'. He was supposedly the incarnation of the ultimate evil in the world. Would you go against the one who supposedly was the ultimate evil?" Cho shook her head. "Exactly. I don't think there was a wizard or witch alive who thought that they could stand up against Voldemort."  
  
"What about Dumbledore?" Cho questioned, taking another sip of her fruit drink.  
  
I shook my head. "I am almost positive now that Dumbledore knew he would lose, but I also think he knew that his death would spark something in Harry. I think that a power was awoken in Harry that day that.well.made him the strongest wizard to ever walk the earth. Stronger than Dumbledore.stronger than Voldemort." I sipped my drink, almost loosing myself in a reverie as I had earlier in the day, but Cho taped my shoulder and brought me out. She began to walk back into the living room where Harry still peered over the parchment, and I followed.  
  
Harry looked up at our entrance, took his drink, and then turned to me. "I don't think there is any way we can trace it. The spells I usually use focus on the origin of the owl, and since Pig is your owl, it always went back to the Burrow. I then tried another spell to trace the paper, but it is from the stationary store in Diagon Alley that sells this piece of paper more than any other. Another dead end."  
  
I spoke the obvious. "What if I just go to Holland Park on the Ides? It's thirteen days away, but at least we'll have time to prepare. That park is around here, isn't it?"  
  
Harry nodded. "It's just south of Notting Hill, actually." I saw the twinkle in his eye and knew he was thinking the same thing as I. Notting Hill seemed to appear a lot in everything. I didn't state the fact that it may be a possibility that the Not-Hermione who had written the letter had written the note too, and would be waiting for me, the "son of Weasley", at the specified place. Harry continued speaking. "But how do we know which bench?"  
  
Cho shrugged. "I don't think it will matter very much, actually. You can just walk around the park until you find someone sitting on a bench. I don't think many people will be there past nightfall anyways, which is probably the reason the person wanted you to meet them then."  
  
I yawned loudly, and decided it was about time I dealt with my body's needs. It had been an extremely long day.starting with a nap. Glancing at my Muggle watch I glared at the sight blaring on the dial. 6:30. "May I take advantage of your guest bedroom for a little while?"  
  
Cho nodded, giving me a smile that was as warm as an August day. I made my way up the stairs to the third floor of the tall house. As much as the house cost, I was amazed that they didn't just move to the country where they could find something twice the size for half the money. The house was three stories, but not very wide. It made up for space by height, and it got tiring walking the two flights of stairs from bottom story to top. The living room, kitchen, dining area, and small bathroom were on the bottom floor. The second story housed a study for Harry and a work out area for Cho as well as a small den. The top floor was reserved for the four bedrooms. One, the master, was Harry and Cho's quarters. Another one was used as a storage room, while the other two were used for guest rooms for Cho's family or for when Sirius, Remus, or one of the old crowd popped in for a visit.  
  
I walked into one of the rooms, saw Sirius's broom propped in the corner, and sighed. The man was the founder of a very lucrative business with Remus, had an enormous mansion, and yet still required his own space at his Godson's house. I failed to see the reason, but I turned and left, heading to the other guest room. I kicked my shoes off, pulled my wizard robes off, leaving the simple Muggle jeans and shirt behind, and climbed on top of the bed. The down comforter cradled every inch of my body, and I immediately began to let the tension of the day leave.  
  
As my eyes closed, however, Sirius once again popped into my head. The Moony and Padfoot Organization was the leading authority on nearly everything having to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts. It had operatives in every corner of the globe combating dark creatures, dark wizards and witches, dark spells, ancient curses, and anything that reeked of darkness. They also trained the Defense Against the Dark Arts instructors of the world's wizarding schools and improved the abilities of school age children ten fold. Remus, who had taken the job of DADA (Defense Against the Dark Arts) teacher at Hogwarts again the year after our graduation, had been one of the founding members of the Order of the Phoenix along with Dumbledore, Sirius, and most the Hogwarts teachers.  
  
My thoughts evolved into thoughts of the Order. It had been instrumental in defeating Voldemort. The war had been a confusing chain of events. While the first Voldemort War was long and drawn out, eleven years, the second VW was short at only three years. However, the death toll of the second war was ten fold that of the first. For some reason, Voldemort decided genocide was better than just random slaughter of those of Muggle birth, or Muggles in general. The Muggle-born population of the wizarding world, especially in England and mainland Europe, was nearly halved. There wasn't a family who didn't feel the sting of Voldemort's tyrannical destruction.  
  
After only nine months, however, those on Voldemort's side suffered a severe loss.Voldemort himself. After the failed attack on Hogwarts, one of the first moves of the war, the Death Eaters were faced with a war with no apparent leader. Lucius Malfoy stepped forward, of course, but the Dark Lord was gone.the "incarnation" as it stood, had failed. The Death Eaters had continued their fight, using the forbidden technologies of the Blaze, Sorenson, and Excon, and even won a few battles, but they lost the war after only two more years of fighting. The Treaty of Atlantis was signed in the underwater city of New Atlantis in 1998, right after our graduation from Hogwarts. The war started, and ended, in a span of three years, but so many had been lost.  
  
I finally drifted off to sleep, my mind racked with dreams of past battles, and if I had known at the time, future ones as well.  
  
******  
  
Yawning, I made my way back down the two flights of stairs to the ground floor. I had slept for two hours, and I had awoken to a clock that shown 8:15 in its neon brightness. I reached the bottom stair of the last flight, which exited out into a hallway, when I heard raised voices from the kitchen. For some reason, I was suddenly overtaken with the urge to listen in on the conversation. I knew it was wrong to do so, but I suppose I was already developing my journalistic "bone" as Cho had called it.  
  
Walking silently down the hallway, I stopped just short of the door that lead into the kitchen, and leaned back to listen in.  
  
Harry's voice was the first I heard. "No, Cho. I can't do it. I've lied to him for this long; we have to keep in the dark. He has enough on his platter as it is without pushing this off on him."  
  
I heard Cho's calming voice break through his fuming. "Then what are you going to tell Sirius? He wants him as part of the program, Harry, and I don't rightly know what you are going to do about it. Frankly, I don't think Ron was born yesterday. It is time you stop protecting him, and let him get burned if that is what it takes. It was his decision to come back, and if you are saving him from every decision, than how can we possibly know whether he is truly a part of the world again?"  
  
Harry sputtered. "I just think it best if Ron doesn't become involved." His voice became suddenly saddened. "I've already lost one of my best friends, and I can't lose the other, and I most definitely can't be responsible for his death."  
  
What were they talking about? What was Harry hiding from me?  
  
Cho, playing the devil's advocate, spoke out. "Why won't you let Ron choose for himself? You think you'll be able to hide it from him forever, Harry? One day, he'll find out, and then, you may lose him anyway." She stopped for a moment and then continued. "You can't hide everything from him, Harry. I think you should tell him the whole truth."  
  
Harry sputtered again. Whatever was being discussed was apparently hard for him. Harry, especially in his adulthood, was a good speaker. To hear him sputtering and tripping over his words led me to believe that this was something beyond important.  
  
"I think it best that we wait for a time to tell him that, Cho. It's only been two months. When it starts to show more, we can announce it to everyone." Harry explained, his voice fading in and out, as if he was pacing from one end of the kitchen to the other.  
  
Cho's calm voice sounded as if it were harmed. "I think it is time you and I discuss it, Harry."  
  
Harry, his voice sounding pained, cursed. "Cho, we've been through this. I love you, and I.want to marry you.but don't you think we should wait until after.until after it?"  
  
Apparently Cho was sitting before, as I suddenly heard a chair scrap across the floor as she stood up and shouted. "Damn it, Harry! Do you think it is acceptable in this day and age to be like this and NOT be married? It isn't! People turn their heads at it, but they snicker and leer behind the backs of those who do this. I can't be leered at, Harry! Not to mention the fact that the Daily Prophet and every other damn paper on the planet would have a heyday with the story!"  
  
She was suddenly quieted, and then Harry spoke calmer, and I had to strain to hear. "Cho, I'll marry you tomorrow if that is what it takes. I'll go before the Minister of Magic himself and have him perform the ceremony for just us, but as things stand, it will have to wait."  
  
Cho, her voice marred by sobs as she had apparently broken out into tears, cried. "I love you so much, Harry, but sometimes I just feel like you are forced to stay with me-that your heart wanders. If this is true, I don't want to marry you, but if what you say is without falsehood, then we should marry as soon as possible. I don't care about a big ceremony, and let the papers do the math later, but let us just get it over with if you truly love me."  
  
Harry didn't answer for a long time, but when he did, I knew it was my time to exit. I heard the sound of a long passionate kiss, followed by the sound of a glass being dropped (or knocked) to the floor. I silently made my way down the hallway and into the living room, where an owl was standing on the table tearing into a bowl of owl treats.  
  
When I muttered "Lumos" and had the room back into a semi-light, I let out a soft cry at the sight of the owl. "Astarael!" I bent down, gave the owl a slight hug, and she affectionately nibbled on my finger. I took the parchment that was rolled up on her leg off, and read over it. Sighing, I knew I would have to interrupt the two in the kitchen.  
  
I walked in purposefully, thankful that they were both fully clothed, just snogging profusely, and announced my presence. "We have to get to the Burrow immediately."  
  
They both looked up, faces shining with scarlet embarrassment, but Harry soon snapped out. "Why?"  
  
I showed him the letter, which he scanned, and he sighed. "I guess our quiet night in isn't going to be so quiet after all. Percy is holding an impromptu conference at the Burrow for all of us. I expect that Sirius and Remus have already been told." He told all this to Cho, and she nodded. They both ran upstairs to change into simple clothes-as I had dressed before coming downstairs-and when we were all finally ready, we immediately apparated to the Burrow.  
  
I had apparated more that day than I had in the past four months put together, and I had to admit to everyone present at the incident that followed that I was a bit rusty. I appeared in the Burrow fine, but when my feet touched down, I was standing on top of the kitchen table, my left foot deep inside one of Molly's carrot cakes. I hurriedly jumped off, with the help of at least seven pairs of Weasley hands, and found myself seated on one of the chairs around the table, my foot being scrubbed by my mother. I finally found my voice. "Hello, all."  
  
Everyone broke out into laughter at that, and Harry and Cho walked into the kitchen moments later, as they had apparated into the designated zone in the back yard. "There you are, Ron. Where did you go to?"  
  
Sirius, who was sitting alone at the head of the long table, chuckled as he explained. "He ruined one of your mother's best concoctions. Good thing I'd already gotten my piece." Everyone laughed again, and the Sirius tapped the table, getting everyone's attention. He nodded towards Percy, who seemed very annoyed that he had been interrupted in his explanations of events. "Percy, if you'd like to continue."  
  
Percy huffed once. He was still in a sore mood over Penelope, apparently, and it wasn't helping the fact that he was usually stuck up anyways. He finally spoke up after several moments of silence. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted." He gave me a harsh look as if my mishap was completely on purpose just to ruin his grand moment.  
  
Like I don't have better things to do.  
  
He straightened his robes and continued. "As Deputy Minister, I am kept to speed with all happenings in the wizarding world of which we know. Since the attack this morning on the Flyway, which resulted in over one hundred deaths, our offices have been flooded with owls, anonymous and not, from terrowizard organizations around the world threatening similar attacks. The Brothers of Stygia have threatened to exterminate Muggles and wizards from Wales to Scotland, and the Reapers of Light have threatened similar attacks on the infrastructure of the wizarding world, like this morning's attack, but on a much larger scale unless we meet their demands. We've been getting owls from other Ministries around the world, all telling that the local terrowizard organizations in their area have also made threats. Fighting has already broken out in Somalia with the Bloodied Scimitar, and there have been three reported non-magical deaths in Los Angeles as the Fallen Angels went on a rampage earlier in the day." He stopped to gather his thoughts, and then finished. "It appears that the attack on the Flyway was only the tip of the iceberg. All this activity could mean that something has happened in the last few months that has sparked the banding together of the world wide organizations, or at least an upturn in their objectives."  
  
Harry spoke up. "Have there been any specific threats? Anything concrete on just one area?"  
  
Percy shook his head. "As far as we can decipher, this has just been an outpouring from the members of these cults around the world. Several cities are mentioned many times, such as Camelotopolis and Atlantis, but no one attack is mentioned in any credible way. We have no way to know when or where they will strike next."  
  
Padma, who was the Ministry's ambassador to France, asked a question that had been on my mind as well. "You mentioned demands. What exactly are the terrowizards demanding, and which ones are doing the demanding?"  
  
Percy looked around nervously for a moment, and then hesitantly continued. "Well.as far as we can tell, every single organization around the world has given us some form of ultimatum. The threats are all being forwarded to us, because we are at the center of that ultimatum. If the threats are carried out, every threat, London and Camelotopolis would be completely demolished by morning, and half the population of the wizarding world of Britain would be wiped out." He wasn't apparently planning to get to the point anytime soon.  
  
Sirius spoke up forcefully. "There is a point, Percy. You can tell them, or I will."  
  
Percy nodded, wringing his hands, and then finished heavily. "The top five organizations in the world have all demanded the same thing. The Death Eaters of England; the Brothers of Stygia of all the United Kingdom; the Reapers of Light of mainland Europe, and apparently they are moving their boundaries to include our area as well; the Bloodied Scimitar of Africa and Eastern Asia; and the Fallen Angels of the USA and Canada; as well as several smaller organizations of South America, Western Asia, and Russia have all sent us an owl demanding three things."  
  
He swallowed hard and then calmly stated. "They want Ron's head, Hermione's body, and Harry alive."  
  
There was an immediate outcry from around the table. Remus stood up from his seat, held a whispered conference with Sirius, and quietly left. Sirius, Harry, and myself were the only ones slightly calm. I didn't understand everything completely, which protected me from the sheer shock of millions of wizards and witches worldwide wanting me dead. As things quieted down, Sirius spoke up. "Remus and I have seen to the safety of the important officials in England. The Minister of Magic, the Knights of the Round, and the Tritons have all been taken to a secure location and put under Moony and Padfoot operatives. The Department of Counter Terrorism has started countering as many of these threats as possible."  
  
Sirius had me up till that point. The Knights of the Round were, of course, the council of twelve businessmen who ran Camelotopolis, and the Tritons were three men elected by the citizens of New Atlantis to head that city, but what was the Department of Counter Terrorism? I had never heard of it.  
  
Fred seemed just as confused as I. "'Department of Counter Terrorism?' There isn't one.is there?"  
  
Harry, face grim, glanced at me before he answered. "I assure you there is, my dear friend. The DCT was founded shortly after the end of VW2. Its main concern was with the fact that the terrorist organizations of the world didn't go into hiding as they had after the first war. Death Eater operatives assassinated the first head of the Department one month after he was sworn in and since then, we've been working to halt the growth of these organizations, as it seems almost impossible to try to eliminate them. For every sect we find, another coven sprouts up in another city. We've cleaned Hogsmeade out three times this year alone, and the Brothers, as well as the Death Eaters, continue to gain supporters. To put it quite frankly, the general attitude of the wizarding world at this time is very anti-Muggle born and anti-Muggle as well. I doubt we can stop them. The true question we must answer, however, is why the sudden surge in activity? Because one sect acts, the others follow.or is it something more than that?"  
  
I wanted to ask a much deeper question. Why did Harry continue to use the words "we" when he talked of the DCT. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Prophet, not a ministry official. Granted, he had gone through Auror training at the Moody's School of Constant Vigilance, but that was as far as it went.  
  
Sirius answered the question. It seemed almost as if both knew, and this conversation was completely for our benefit, and not theirs. "Because they know something we don't. Something is coming.something big."  
  
Harry nodded. "The next incarnation, perhaps?"  
  
Sirius grimly sighed. "I'm afraid so. Old horrors have a way of returning to the world."  
  
I looked around. Everyone's face was bent in a questioning frown except for Harry, Sirius, and Cho. I finally spoke the question that had plagued my mind since Harry began. "How do you all know this? Why do you speak as if you are a part of the DCT?"  
  
Harry stared into my eyes, as if to apologize before he answered my question. "Ron, Sirius and I are more involved in it than you know. Two years ago, the Minister's department after the death of the DCT's head approached me. They offered me the job because they thought that with my DADA experience, not to mention my defeat of Voldemort, I could possibly know a way to stop the madness before it escalated into all this. I didn't give them any promises, but accepted the position with one demand of my own." Harry nodded at Sirius.  
  
"That I be named as Deputy Director." Sirius finished Harry's statement.  
  
"Soon after we were named to this position, we both decided it would be best to keep the fledgling department under wraps. It was only a month old, and only very few terrowizard operatives knew about its existence, and the chances of information being shared between sects was very unlikely. A rivalry has always been established between most of the orders, greater between the Reapers and the Brothers/Death Eaters, and information is rarely shared. The Ministry helped me in the Daily Prophet where, with my fame and backing from the Ministry, I moved up through the ranks to Editor- in-Chief. Sirius here, with the help of another DCT operative, Remus Lupin, founded the Moony and Padfoot Organization, a front for our activities as DCT operatives. My job was to control any media leaks and to try to turn general approval towards forming a Ministry Army, while Padfoot and Moony worked to build a powerful network of wizards and witches to counter the terrowizard organizations. The second 'Order', as it stands, was formed." He stopped; his story completed, and turned to me. "I'm sorry, Ron, I should have told you.but there are still things I have to discuss with Sirius before you are brought into the full light."  
  
I recalled his and Cho's argument from before, and I realized that this was the big secret I wasn't to know about. "It's okay, Harry.you were just trying to protect me."  
  
He nodded, thankful that I understood. "I have to get back to Daily Prophet HQ and monitor the situation as it stands. Sirius, please go speak with the Minister, find out what he wants to do when tomorrow comes, and convince him to cancel his weekly lecture at Hogwarts."  
  
Cho began to protest. "Harry, you don't have to-"  
  
"Damn it, Cho.you know I have to do this. I may be the DCT head, but you know I love my cover job just as much. I may have earned it with the help of the Ministry, but I was working towards it anyways. I wasn't just a sports writer as cover, love, you know I actually enjoy what I do. I breathe the news."  
  
Cho tearfully nodded, and then passionately kissed him. Molly blushed. "Damn you, Harry.you come back! Understand?! You come back!" She ran out of the kitchen in a storm of tears and Padma and Parvarti followed to comfort her. Molly followed moments later, a batch of hot cookies in her arms.  
  
Just before Harry disapparated, he looked straight into my eyes. His emerald gaze was filled to the edge with determination. "All right, Ron?" And I knew that he was really asking for me to forgive him for the lie.  
  
I nodded, and he immediately disappeared.  
  
******  
  
Cho and I apparated into the kitchen of her and Harry's home just as the clock struck 9:00. The sheer magnitude of things that had happened since I had awoken from my nap earlier was amazing. Practically the whole world was rocking, and I had found new things about my best friend I had never known before. I could tell, however, that there was more to come. He said he had more to ponder before he told me all. I just hope I was ready for another bombshell.  
  
Cho and I planted ourselves in the living room, where she turned on the wizard's radio to try and get any information over the Wizarding Public Radio stations about any happenings in Camelotopolis. We sat silently, her sinking into a large, overstuffed chair, and myself sitting on the couch.  
  
All the hype of the day reminded me so much of the war three years ago, and I suddenly felt another flashback, like one from earlier in the day take over. It began just as the other had ended.  
  
"He is here! The true battle now begins!"  
  
Harry suddenly took off, sprinting as fast as he could across the grounds towards the Quidditch pitch. Tearing after him, the small group of young wizards and myself drew closer and closer to the dark pitch, and closer and closer to what sounded like the crowd at the last World Cup match.  
  
He kicked open the doors to the locker room, ran through the darkness, and out onto the field before he finally stopped. I was the one right behind him, so I knew exactly what had halted his charge. The chanting was all around us now, and I finally saw what it was. The stands were full of Death Eaters. Each had his wand held up in the air and was shouting "Voldemort! Master! Dark Lord! Powerful!" over and over.  
  
I felt Hermione's body suddenly lean towards me, and I put a protective arm around her. Then I heard her gasp, and following her vision I knew why. On the other side of the field, at the opposite locker room entrance, a group of teachers and students were being escorted out by three tall Death Eaters. Dumbledore was at the head of the captive group. He was walking defiantly, to let every damned Death Eater in the stands to know that he was here of his own free will.  
  
They reached the middle of the field and stopped. Harry began to walk out towards the group, and Hermione and I followed. The rest of our group devised a plan to ambush the Death Eaters in the stands, or for the more frightened, to make it to the woods alive.  
  
We reached the center of the field and Dumbledore's hand reached up and fell on Harry's shoulder. The thundering was louder than ever, but we had no trouble hearing Dumbledore's strong voice. "This is it, my boy. After five years of teaching you, I finally get to see what you can do.and you finally get to see why Voldemort fears me, and why Grindelwald fell at my wand. Don't expect too much though, I am an old man. I may not be able to carry on, Harry." Harry tried to break in, but Dumbledore held up a hand to silence him. "But you, my dear boy, will be the victory of us all. Remember, I look forward to the next great adventure, but your adventure here has just begun." Harry wiped a single tear from his eye, but didn't offer any speech in return.  
  
Dumbledore then turned to me. "Ron Weasley, I am immensely pleased to know that the Weasley line has led to your birth. You have much to do this day, and the days afterward. You will lose something dear to you, but in the end, you will learn what the most important things in the world are. I hope your wand will stay strong today, and your power true."  
  
He finally turned to Hermione, and I noticed the twinkle in his eye take on an almost sad hue. "You, my dear, are one of the many joys that a teacher hopes to find in his or her classroom, and I had the joy of having you in my school. I fear, though, that your future is dark. You will go through a very bad time, but if you withstand it, you may just find the power to rid the world of evil once and for all. You, my dear, are the most important piece to the puzzle of the Seraphs friendship.you, Hermione, are the glue that holds the Trinity together. May the wings of your heart be strong, and the power of your mind be right.you will need both in the months to come."  
  
Suddenly, the sound of in the stands took on a crescendo as the yelling was accompanied by stamping. A lone Death Eater was walking across the field, and when he reached the middle and pulled back his hood, Dumbledore scoffed. "Lucius Malfoy. You will rue the day you set foot on my school grounds after returning to your master. I will live to see your death."  
  
Lucius sneered. "Very doubtful, Professor Dumbledore. You will be the first death on this field tonight, but definitely not the last." He sounded as if he had a whole monologue prepared, but he suddenly stopped, looked up at the spinning Dark Mark above, and smiled. "And he is, of course, right on time."  
  
A thin ray of green light peeled off of the Mark, drifted to the ground, and landed just in front of Dumbledore. It slowly began to grow on the ground, rising up to form a column, and Dumbledore yelled out instructions. "All of you! Run to the edges of the field!" We all followed his instructions, Madame Pomfrey the last to reach the edge of the pitch, and when we turned around, the green light was a head taller than Dumbledore, and the shape of a man. The Headmaster had his wand out in a classic dueling stance, and was standing four meters or so from the column of light.  
  
Suddenly, the light faded, and in its place stood a man (if you could call him that) whose name rolled off every tongue in the stands, aside from Dumbledore's at the exact instance the light faded. "Voldemort." The cry from the Death Eaters was so loud, it shook the very ground.  
  
Voldemort's face smiled, imbuing warmth that traveled nowhere near the cold, heartless, snake eyes that rested in dark recesses. His body was strong, muscular, and tall. He wore a long cloak with the Dark Mark on the front over his chest, and a cape draped over his shoulders and hung to his heels. When he spoke, it sounded like a mixture between a snake and a man. "Dumbledore. It is good to see you after all these years. I'm sorry that you will not live to see me again. You will die tonight."  
  
Dumbledore laughed, and I finally decided he had lost his mind. The strongest wizard in the world was threatening to kill him, and all the eccentric man could do was laugh. He finally explained his joviality. "You may kill me tonight, Tom Riddle, but I will become more powerful than you could ever imagine." I vaguely remember watching a Muggle movie with Harry once that contained that line, to an extent, but I knew that if Dumbledore said it, it would be true.  
  
"Is that so, Albus?" Voldemort's wand suddenly sprang to his hand from where it had been tucked into his belt. "Let usss ssssettle thisss once and for all." Quicker than I could blink, his wand had shot out, and a spell was shouted in a tongue that sent a shiver up and down my spine. Harry next to me shivered and touched his scar as Hermione gasped. A green light shot out of Voldemort's wand, closely followed by a purple light, and the two beams entangled in a double helix.  
  
Dumbledore held up his wand parallel to his body, and just when the double helix seemed like it was going to slam into Dumbledore, it flared against a blue shield of light, and ricocheted up into the stands where it hit four Death Eaters who immediately turned to ash and were blown away.  
  
Dumbledore smiled, quickly flipped his wand up, and caught it by the bottom, and a blue stream of sparks shout out the end without him muttering a word. Voldemort ran around the Headmaster, the blue sparks barely missing him as they flew past, slamming into the ground in mini explosions that threw dirt up into the air.  
  
When all the sparks had hit, Voldemort immediately slid to a stop and cast a yellow ball into his palm and threw it at Dumbledore, who performed a short-apparate out of the balls way. As it sailed past Dumbledore pointed his wand at it, caught it in a purple lasso of light, turned on his heel once, and threw it back at Voldemort.  
  
The Dark Lord didn't dodge the blast, and when the ball hit him it blew him backwards and into the stone wall at the bottom edge of the pitch. He pulled himself out of a crater as if no damage had been done, did a flip jump over the small crater the orb had made in the ground, and immediately shouted out a curse in Dumbledore's direction. "You cannot win, old man! Your time has come!"  
  
Dumbledore chuckled as he merrily pointed his wand absent-mindedly around him growing flowers on the spot. "My time may have come, Voldemort, but I will win in the end."  
  
Voldemort's wand came to bare, and his shout echoed around the stand, silencing the cheering Death Eaters, except for a small portion of them who were suddenly set upon by about forty students. "WHY ARE YOU SO SURE!?"  
  
Dumbledore suddenly became serious and brought his wand up as well. "Because I have a secret weapon." And then a smirk spread across his face. "And you were never that good at dueling anyways."  
  
Voldemort became enraged and shouted another spell in the tongue he had used earlier. A blue light shot out of his wand, and instead of slamming into Dumbledore, it hit his wand and disintegrated. Dumbledore wiped his hands on his robes, the dust of his wand wiping off in gray swashes, and sighed. "Yet another good wand gone."  
  
Voldemort laughed. "You are finished, Dumbledore. You cannot continue without a wand."  
  
Dumbledore pointed at the broom shed where the door suddenly flew open and Harry's Firebolt flew out. Dumbledore mounted it and rose off the ground saying. "Watch me."  
  
He circled overhead and I distinctly heard his laughter ring out, and a call that said, "I was a mighty good seeker in my day."  
  
Voldemort let out another enraged scream and leapt into the air. I gawked. He was performing self-levitation and still expected to be able to fight off Dumbledore as well.  
  
Voldemort rocketed around the stands till he was as high as Dumbledore, around the height of the goals, and pointed his wand. I didn't hear the spell he called, but Dumbledore nimbly dodged the blast of fire that shot under his broom, held out his hand, and muttered a hex I had never heard before. A pulsating orange sphere shot out of his hand, and when it intercepted Voldemort, he dropped a few meters in altitude before he regained control of his spell.  
  
I remember watching that fight for what had to have been most of the night. They traded curse for curse, hex for hex, but I never once remember seeing Dumbledore get hit by any one of them. At the end, however, I suddenly sensed a change in Dumbledore's mentality, and when I looked at Harry, I knew why. He was glowing.  
  
Dumbledore finally landed on the ground, Voldemort hovering over his head, and prepared another spell. Before he could, however, Voldemort screamed the first spell he had cast that night, the one that had disintegrated the Death Eaters in the stand, and when the green-purple double helix slammed into Dumbledore's shield, he turned to look at Harry, nodded, and then let it through.  
  
It struck him with the force of a nuclear bomb, sending his body flying through the air. Before it landed, however, a bright light engulfed it, and when the light faded, he was gone. Voldemort screamed out as he pointed his wand into the stands and killed thirty of his own men. "DAMN THE VALOR!!"  
  
At that moment, Harry called the Firebolt over to him from where it lay where Dumbledore left it, climbed on, and flew up to Voldemort. Harry, who was still emanating a soft, golden light, raised his hand to Voldemort and a ray of the light shot out. When it touched the Dark Lord, it enveloped him, and they both disappeared.  
  
"HARRY!" Hermione and I called at the same moment, but he was gone. At that moment, the stands erupted, and Death Eaters began to pour onto the pitch.  
  
"Hermione.go to the castle! To the infirmary! This is going to be a very big battle, and I don't want anything to happen to you. Please.go to the infirmary." I pleaded with her as we both blasted Death Eaters left and right.  
  
"No, Ron! I can't leave you here-" She was interrupted as I quickly kissed her.  
  
"Go, Hermione. Please!" She nodded and quickly Apparated. We weren't supposed to without a license, but when she had figured it out, she had taught us all.  
  
Hogwarts teachers suddenly surrounded me, and Professor McGonagall was standing next to me. "We have to fight our way out, Mr. Weasley. The Ministry has been attacked, and we can't expect any Aurors to come to our assistance tonight as they are all defending precious Cornelius Fudge." Her wand emitted the purple light that all of our wands had, and a Death Eater fell to the ground, cut in half. "That was very brave.what you did."  
  
I smiled as I stupefied several Death Eaters. We were slowly inching our way to the middle of the field. We were hoping to make it across the pitch and to the open doors of the other lockers, but we would have heavy fighting all the way there. I'll say it for us; we made it to the center and were stopped.  
  
We were surrounded. As much as we fought, we killed the lines, but more and more Death Eaters poured in to take the fallen one's places. There had to be a thousand Death Eaters on the fourteen wizards and witches at the center of the field. We held up our wands, and were suddenly joined as Fred, George, Cho, and the others were shoved into the center of the ring of Death Eaters with us.  
  
Fred smiled. "Hello, Ron! Good night isn't it?"  
  
I smiled beside myself. Even after all this, Fred still had his humor.  
  
Lucius Malfoy stepped out of the circle and addressed Professor McGonagall. "With Dumbledore's death, you are now in charge of the school. I put this before you. If you accept, you will all be free and live. If you do not accept, you will all die, and all the students in the woods, except for the Slytherins, will be hunted down and killed." He stopped for a moment to let that sink in, and then continued. "Surrender Hogwarts to our hands."  
  
McGonnagal took no time to think, but spouted her answer immediately. "I think, as I'm sure Dumbledore would say right now, that you, Mr. Malfoy, should go kiss one of your Dementor pets."  
  
Lucius sneered. "I take that as a no. Well, I am glad you mentioned the Dementors." He waved his hand, and three tall, dark Dementors walked through the throng of Death Eaters. They were given a wide birth of three or more feet, and they quickly stepped out onto the center of the field. "Does your answer change now, Minerva? Or will you be the first to feel the kiss of the Dementor?"  
  
I suddenly blew up. The calm Weasley I was on the outside hid a very powerful, Gryffindor spirit on the inside. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" I had shouted it with such force that the spell blasted straight from my body in all directions, rather than from my wand. The three Dementors were knocked back as the silvery white light coagulated above my head to form a dragon that flapped its wings twice, and then dove at the Dementors who fell back, and were chased out of the pitch.  
  
This heartened all the teachers, and every wand was suddenly in hand.  
  
Lucius laughed. "Then you all choose death!" The Death Eaters surged forward at this, but just as suddenly as their attack began again, it was halted.  
  
An enormous spider crawled over the walls of the pitch and leapt right into the middle of the Death Eaters, grabbing three and squashing even more. Just as this occurred, the doors of the far locker room were blown inward as a score of bow bearing Centaurs charged onto the field followed by most of the third and fourth years of Hogwarts, all with their wands at the ready.  
  
As if this weren't enough, a fully-grown Hippogriff flew over our heads, circled once, and dove at the center of the field. As Aragog continued munching, the Hippogriff landed and Sirius Black dismounted. He held his wand up to Lucius and looked at me. "Where's Harry?" I had to tell him I didn't know.  
  
He looked perplexed, as if somehow he knew Harry wasn't dead, and turned back to Lucius. "Leave now, Malfoy, or you will feel my wrath."  
  
Lucius turned to look at Aragog who had eaten fifteen Death Eaters and was laughing as spells bounced off his skin. His gaze turned to the centaurs who were sending a steady stream of arrows into the Death Eaters, and for every one centaur the Death Eaters killed, twenty dark wizards fell to the earth, pierced. The students were stupefying thirty or forty Death Eaters with every joint cry. Lucius looked back at Sirius. "You won't kill me, Black."  
  
Lucius turned, pointed his wand at a Death Eater near Lucius, and muttered the spell. "Avada Kedavra!" The green light, the rushing sound, and the Death Eater fell to the earth dead. "I repeat, Malfoy. Leave, or die!"  
  
Malfoy didn't take time to answer, turned, and ran. His path carried him the farthest away from Aragog, and in the opposite direction of the Centaurs and students. He was closely followed as the remaining Death Eaters ran out at top speed.  
  
A cheer erupted around me, but Cho and I were silent. "Where is Harry?" She asked me, but I didn't know the answer.  
  
I was brought out of my reverie as an owl flew through an open window and landed on the table in front of Cho. She took the rolled parchment from him and began to read it to herself. I glanced at my watch and muttered the time out loud. "9:15."  
  
Yawning, I sat up and my hearing focused in on the radio. I heard a few words that caught my attention "bombing.Blaze.Camelotopolis" but the volume wasn't high enough for me to decipher what they were talking about. Probably just announcing that there are many threats.  
  
That was when Cho let out a gasp, dropped the letter, and fell back in her seat with a scream.  
  
I quickly jumped off the couch. "What is it?" She didn't answer me, so I grabbed the short note and read it myself. "NEWSFLASH: There has been a Blaze attack on Camelotopolis. Three major buildings have been completely destroyed, and the Daily Prophet HQ building has been severely damaged. Department of Catastrophic Events workers are searching for survivors now. The death toll is predicted to be in the thousands, as two of the three destroyed buildings were high rises in the fashion of the Dragon's Corporation headquarters. Only one known death from the Daily Prophet as of yet: Copy Editor Sara Grey has been pronounced dead on the scene. Further news will be relayed as this horrible event is looked into."  
  
I sat back on the floor hard. A tear escaped my eye. Harry was at the Prophet HQ! He could be dead. My thoughts went back to when he and Voldemort had disappeared. He had been gone for twenty-four hours, and everyone had given up hope that Harry, just a boy, could have defeated the Dark Lord. I too began to fear for his death, and now, I was in the same situation.  
  
A hand fell on my shoulder and I looked up to see Sirius standing over me. "So you've heard." I nodded, and he continued. "The DCT has operatives already on the case. The Reapers and the Death Eaters are claiming join responsibility, and several smaller organizations are claiming they did this; they want the fame as well I suppose. You need to come with me, both of you. We are going to help search for sure-" He didn't finish his statement.  
  
A light flashed in the large living room of Harry and Cho's Devonshire Terrace home. Looking up I was surprised to see the bright robes of Charlotte Grey standing in the doorway to hall. She walked over, and stood staring into my blue eyes with her own violet irises. I could feel the anger radiating off of her at the terrible acts that had been committed. In that moment I knew that it was no coincidence that the Sara Grey from the DP offices had Charlotte's last name.they were sisters.  
  
She turned to Sirius. "You already know what I told Harry today, Mr. Black."  
  
Sirius nodded. "You told him that you wouldn't cast your wand on our side.that you were against fighting at all. Tired of it, you said." He threw in a very cutting remark after that. "I suppose you see the other side now."  
  
Anger flashed in Char's eyes, and Sirius suddenly found himself slammed against the wall by a powerful wind. I didn't see a wand in Charlotte's hand, or anywhere on her person, and once again I was amazed at her sheer power. I tried to remember when her and Harry had had any time alone, but then I recalled the seemingly short telepathic conference they had held.  
  
As Char let Sirius to the ground she said, "I am sorry, Mr. Black." She let it hang in the air for a few moments of dead silence. When she finally spoke, her words burned with anger. "It is time that the world trembles at the sound of my voice. I am tired of the wizards of the age destroying each other with more and more evils. I will use all that is in my power to destroy the Reapers of Light once and for all, and rid this world of those who would use fear to destroy. I will avenge the death of my sister who so senselessly died." At this she turned to Sirius. "Take me to the Minister of Magic, Mr. Black. I am 'casting my wand' and it is time he and I had a chat." Sirius nodded, and the two disappeared.  
  
Cho fell into my arms then, and we stood there, her sobs the only sound in the house. I held her tightly, hugging her like the sister she was, and crying myself. Finally, after an eternity she looked up at me, as she had the day on the Quidditch pitch long ago, when she had looked up at me with much younger eyes. "Where is Harry?" She asked, or, it may have been "Is Harry alive?"  
  
I, however, heard that voice from the day of the assault on Hogwarts. Heard her plaintiff cry as the boy she loved so much was not to be seen. I answered her today as I had then. "I don't know, Cho." Letting out a cry I finished. "I don't know."  
  
.to be continued in Chapter 5 The Reapers of Light  
  
**REMEMBER: Be a responsible reader and review! Thank you!  
  
Special Thanks and Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to all the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles. I spent a recent Saturday with their children and spouses at a "Family Fun Day" thing.seeing the pain in the kids eyes while I painted their faces (I volunteered as a face painter) was almost torturous.but I am glad to do my part and help out. Thanks to my amazing Betas Jenny and Glitzy! Also, once again, thanks so much to all of my readers! You all are the reason this is done, of course!  
  
Sources: A few things from this story were borrowed. The Valor that Voldemort mentioned in the second flashback (the Valor that will play a very big part later on) is a name borrowed from J. R. R. Tolkien. A few lines said during Voldemort and Dumbledore's fight are borrowed from Star Wars, but I'm sure you all caught that ;). Also, the Flyway at the beginning, just as the Flyway at the end of Chapter 3, was borrowed from AngieJ. You can read her fanfiction here . Also, the OC of Charlotte Grey is based on my AMAZING Beta SorcressGrey (Jenny). The idea of the dove and violet eyes are hers, as well as the significance of the silver ring with the lapis stone, also, thanks to her pointing this out, parts of Char's actions should be noted as possibly being confused with Galadriel from LOTR.no copying is intended, so I'll post that here as well.  
  
New Spells: Here is a bit of explanation to spells used throughout this chapter (and the forbidden devices) (all this is thanks to my trusty Latin dictionary.I love the language so making up new spells is fun):  
  
Vis Ager-literally translates to "force field"  
  
Obitus-Death of course  
  
Potens Noceo-translates to "powerful harm" (corny I know, but the Latin sounds cool)  
  
Ignis Magnus-Great Fire  
  
Devices: Blaze-Ignis Magnus melded with Muggle dynamite technology  
  
Excon-"the earth shaker" is a spell that causes destruction of buildings, as well as massive earthquakes. Named after a long dead leader of the Reapers of Light, Excon Aurelias.  
  
Sorenson-Named after a Brothers of Stygia wizard scientist who developed a spell that traps an individual and, using the spell Deletus (translation: destroy.that is a conjugated form I believe.the actual base Latin word is deleo), turns their body to dust from the feet up. Some who were saved from the spell lost their legs.past that, it is certain death. Colin's family was killed by this trap spell, and he watched them die.imagine seeing your loved one's turned to dust right in front of you. The end of the spell sends out a telepathic message that says "From Dust to Dust" in a small tone that rings in the ears of all wizards and witches in a one-mile radius. During VW2, very few went through a day where they didn't hear the evil, singsong voice in their heads.  
  
Minor Notes: The term Seraphs (which will play an enormous role in this story) is based upon the Angel category Seraphim. These Angels are the first of the nine orders (according to Angelology) and are some of the most powerful. They have three pairs of wings.  
  
**Chapter 3's Reviewers club! You all are amazing!! This is listed in order from first reviewer to latest reviewer (if I get reviews after this is sent to FA to be updated, I'm sorry.) Please remember to review by clicking the review link, or send me your review at uy_lance@hotmail.com. Subject line: REVIEW! Chapter 4! Also remember that the thread in The Simplest of Emotions review board entitled "Want to know when new chapters are updated?" is up. Subscribe to it, and I'll post the announcement of new chapters in there, and if you are subscribed, you'll receive an e-mail letting you know!**  
  
Twinkle-thanks again for the blush worthy review! You are an amazing writer as well, Twinkle, and I look forward to finally finding time in the near future to read the next chapter in your story ;)  
  
SJO-thanks for standing with me throughout this storyline.I hope you are as pleased with the turns in this chapter as you were with Chapter 3's. E- mail me any questions you have.  
  
Aless02-Hope you loved Chapter 4 as much as three.and thanks for not blaring the fact that you'd already read it.  
  
JenniM-Thanks for doing what you don't normally do! I love to get reviewers, and to see someone who doesn't normally review reviewing my fic is very great indeed. You get the award for the most flattering review for Chapter 3.and I look forward to seeing your review of chapter 4!!  
  
Ainadilwen-You get two awards this issue! Longest review and Most Comprehensive review! I hope your wait for this chapter was bearable.I already had 2/3 of it typed before Chapter 3 got finished. Warning, however, I haven't even begun Chapter 5.I'm debating some things, and it may take me a while to figure them out, but I'll be starting within the next few days. I hope some things about Hermione were answered in this, but remember, don't count her out, and thanks for the compliment about the letter.it took about a day to make it sound that nice ;). I'm trying to make the characters as real as possible, and knowing that I've accomplished that to some extent is great! Yes, the money is a bit hard to believe, but I didn't want money issues to be an.issue in my story.so I fixed that ;) And finally, Snape will show up in Chapter 5, and you will be thoroughly surprised at his role.I hope it surprises you! Thanks for the review, it is, as always, a delight!  
  
Granger21-Thank you so much for the review, and you get the reward this issue of "The review with the most emoticons"! I love those little things, and seeing them all in your review was rather cool. I promise to not bail on writing. The chapters from here on out may not be this long, and involved, but I've met the 70 page minimum here at Schnoogle, so I have a bit of freedom in that respect! Thank you so much for your review!  
  
Mystic Penguin-I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm trying to make the wizarding world user-friendlier. So far in the HP world (JK Rowling's version neways) there hasn't been much of an explanation of why certain things are strictly Muggle and why others are both, and some are strictly wizard. I'm working on my own world here, so it's rather fun! I hoped you enjoyed the numerous subplots in this one.those are beginning to work their way forward, however, and form several major plot lines!  
  
VictoriaAnne-I'll add a little cameo for my favorite Slytherin girl ;) Thanks so much for your continued support, and I'll be back in the common room before you can say Apparate! My days are calming down now, so I'll pop in ASAP!  
  
THANK YOU ALL!!! AND REMEMBER TO RETURN FOR YOUR DOSE OF THE SIMPLEST OF EMOTIONS! 


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